diff --git a/python/pyspark/mllib/evaluation.py b/python/pyspark/mllib/evaluation.py
index 34f6310e9e8b1..16cb49cc0cfff 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/mllib/evaluation.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/mllib/evaluation.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 from pyspark.mllib.common import JavaModelWrapper
 from pyspark.sql import SQLContext
+from pyspark.sql.types import StructField, StructType, DoubleType
 
 
 class BinaryClassificationMetrics(JavaModelWrapper):
@@ -38,9 +39,12 @@ def __init__(self, scoreAndLabels):
         :param scoreAndLabels: an RDD of (score, label) pairs
         """
         sc = scoreAndLabels.ctx
-        SQLContext(sc)  # monkey patch RDD.toRDD
+        sql_ctx = SQLContext(sc)
+        df = sql_ctx.createDataFrame(scoreAndLabels, schema=StructType([
+            StructField("score", DoubleType(), nullable=False),
+            StructField("label", DoubleType(), nullable=False)]))
         java_class = sc._jvm.org.apache.spark.mllib.evaluation.BinaryClassificationMetrics
-        java_model = java_class(scoreAndLabels.toDF()._jdf)
+        java_model = java_class(df._jdf)
         super(BinaryClassificationMetrics, self).__init__(java_model)
 
     def areaUnderROC(self):