St John's Basketball Favored by 12.5 as Red Storm Host Creighton at Madison Square Garden
st john's basketball will face Creighton on Saturday at noon ET in a Big East matchup at Madison Square Garden, and bookmakers have installed the Red Storm as a double-digit favorite. The game matters because St. John's seeks to protect a long winning streak at home while Creighton arrives off a signature upset that altered betting narratives.
Development details
The teams meet Saturday, Feb. 21, with tip-off set for 12 p. m. ET and television coverage on FOX. St. John's enters the game at 21-5 overall and 14-1 in Big East play; Creighton is 14-13 and 8-8 in conference action. The betting line lists St. John's as a 12. 5-point favorite and the over/under is set at 155. 5. Moneyline pricing referenced in pregame odds shows St. John's as a heavy favorite on the straight wager.
Madison Square Garden will host the contest as the Red Storm aim to extend a five-game home winning streak. Betting markets and sportsbooks, including BetMGM Sportsbook, have been active around the matchup with lines updated in the lead-up to game day.
St John's Basketball: Context and escalation
St. John's has compiled a strong season profile, winning 12 games in a row overall and holding a dominant Big East record. The teams met earlier this season on Jan. 10 in Omaha, where St. John's posted a 90-73 victory. In that game, St. John's guard Oziyah Sellers totaled 16 points, six rebounds and five assists, and forward Zuby Ejiofor contributed 12 points along with multiple steals.
Creighton arrives with momentum from a Wednesday road upset of No. 5 UConn, a 91-84 victory in which guard Josh Dix scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Nik Graves added 18 points and five assists. That win halted a two-game losing streak for Creighton and ended a 0-10 run against the spread for the Bluejays. Despite the upset, Creighton remains just a game above. 500 and is 2-5 straight up in its last seven outings.
Offensive and scoring trends have shaped market expectations: Creighton has seen the over hit in three straight games and in 11 of its last 15, while St. John's has registered a 7-4 edge on the over in its past 11 games. Those patterns have influenced both the total and spread pricing used by bettors and bookmakers.
Immediate impact
The immediate stakes are both competitive and financial. For St. John's, a home win would preserve a five-game home streak and reinforce its position in the conference with a 14-1 Big East ledger. For Creighton, the UConn victory serves as a tangible cause for market reevaluation: sportsbooks and handicappers have pointed to the upset when identifying value on the Bluejays against a large spread.
From a betting perspective, lines reflect both season-long performance and recent form. The spread has pushed St. John's into heavy-favorite territory—creating steep moneyline pricing—while Creighton's recent road win has led some bettors and analysts to recommend taking Creighton with points. The total set near the mid-150s mirrors the recent frequency of high-scoring games for both teams.
Forward outlook
The next confirmed milestone is the noon ET tip-off Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Lines and odds will continue to be monitored in the hours before the game, with last pregame updates previously recorded in early-morning market checks. The outcome will immediately affect both teams' conference standing and the short-term betting landscape: a St. John's win would extend its win streak and reinforce heavy-favorite pricing, while a Creighton cover or upset would shift perceptions about the Bluejays' standing against top Big East competition.
What makes this notable is how a single high-profile upset and an earlier season blowout intersect to produce markedly different market signals—one favoring the home favorite by double digits, the other offering concrete reasons bettors might back the underdog with points. The game will deliver a clear data point on which narrative carries through the rest of the conference slate.
