It was never going to be a walk in the park. If St. John’s were going to clinch another Big East regular season crown, they were going to need to scrap for it against Seton Hall.
In front of a madhouse crowd of 9,000 at the Prudential Center, the Pirates dragged the Red Storm into a game they were most comfortable playing: a physical, low-scoring battle that would go down to the wire. Yet, when it mattered most, the St. John’s executed in the clutch.
Behind 21 points from team captain Zuby Ejiofor
in his final regular season game, the Red Storm outlasted the Pirates in a 72-65 win to secure a share of the Big East regular season title in back-to-back seasons — a feat they haven’t accomplished since 1985-86.
The opening played out familiarly for St. John’s, whose offense went ice cold when they were leading. Following a mid-range jumper by Zuby Ejiofor at the 13:14 mark, the Red Storm only scored five points over the next 7:54. More than enough time for even a scoring-deficient team like the Pirates to pull ahead off an acrobatic layup by T.J. Simpkins.
Matters were made worse when Ejiofor, who was the only Red Storm player producing consistent offense to this point, went to the bench following his second foul at the 4:55 mark.
St. John’s didn’t let that setback bring them down and survived the Ejiofor-less minutes going into halftime. Ruben Prey supplied five of his seven first-half points with the Red Storm’s captain on the sideline, including a go-ahead trey at the 2:00 mark and a baby hook over Najai Hines in the final twenty seconds before the break.
The Johnnies survived yet another stretch without Ejiofor, who returned to the bench with his third foul with 17:03 remaining. Joson Sanon sank back-to-back threes, then Oziyah Sellers buried his first triple of the game off a pretty skip pass by Dillon Mitchell to give St. John’s a 44-35 lead. However, Seton Hall pressed hard and answered with an 8-0 run to get back within one point off an AJ Staton-McCray finger roll.
Layups by Bryce Hopkins and Dylan Darling couldn’t kindle any momentum as St. John’s left points at the free throw line, allowed second-chance opportunities for Seton Hall, and committed some poor live-ball turnovers. It wasn’t until Oziyah Sellers came alive late to provide the late-game spark the Johnnies needed, scoring all eleven of his points in the second half.
During a 12-2 second-half run, Sellers trailed behind Mitchell in transition and reset his feet to make a three-pointer to give St. John’s a 55-49 lead with 7:30 remaining. At the 4:07 mark, Sellers swished a corner trey to give the Johnnies their largest lead of the night of 63-52. All told in the second half, St. John’s scored 42 points on 65.2% shooting (15-of-23) and 5-of-9 from three, flipping the script from a tepid first twenty minutes of offense in which they hit 37.9% from the floor (11-of-29) and only 2-of-11 from deep.
Seton Hall attempted one final push and cut the Johnnies lead to 66-63 following an AJ Staton-McCray triple with 47 seconds to go, which was their first and only long-range bucket of the game. In response, Dillon Mitchell broke the press and made a fastbreak layup, while Sellers and Ejiofor made free throws to seal the game.
St. John’s still has a chance of winning the outright Big East regular season title. They will need UConn to suffer an improbable loss Marquette on Saturday afternoon in order to take sole possession of first place.
Even if the Huskies win tomorrow to tie the Red Storm’s conference record of 18-2, the Johnnies would still hold the tie-breaker for the Big East Tournament’s 1-seed. The Red Storm swept the league’s next-highest-ranked opponent Creighton while the Huskies lost at home to them.
The Red Storm (25-6, 18-2 Big East) own the 1-seed in the Big East Tournament and will find out whether they face the 8-or-9-seed in this Thursday’s quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 12 p.m., and the game can be streamed on Peacock.
