Winning back-to-back championships is one of the hardest things to do in organized sports, next to winning the first championship. Just ask the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Chiefs or UConn Huskies.
But 370 days after their historic Big East Championship last year, No. 18 St. John’s once again saw the opportunity for immortality in front of them — a chance to repeat as regular season champions presented itself in the form of the Seton Hall Pirates.
After the first two buckets went the Pirates’ way, the Red Storm’s frontcourt completely dominated the rest of the contest. A blistering 11-0 scoring run opened the offensive floodgates for St. John’s, pushing them to an early 11-4 lead.
Across this run, Zuby Ejiofor (21 pts, 8-12 FG) scored five of his nine first half points, anchoring the Johnnies red hot offense — adding another clutch performance in a primetime game to his Big East Player of the Year resume.
Barring multiple sloppy shooting fouls from Ian Jackson (0 pts, 3 fouls), the Red Storm defense denied any and all Seton Hall scoring chances for nearly half of the first half. Thanks to a Najai Hines (11 pts, 4-4 FG) tip-in putback, the Pirates shot 1-7 over seven minutes of gameplay.
But the Johnnies did not take advantage of their opponent’s struggles.
With both Ejiofor and Jackson in foul trouble, the offense couldn’t find any traction and couldn’t extend their two-possession lead. The door was left wide open for Seton Hall, and a quick five point swing gave them a 22-21 lead with five minutes remaining.
Both teams struggled mightily on offense in this first half: each shot under 30% from the field (SJU – 38%, SHU 33%) and badly from the charity stripe (SJU – 60%, SHU – 73%). The Red Storm scored most of their points from the paint, out scoring the Pirates 18-12 but losing the rebounding battle 19-16.
After trading baskets for the final five minutes of the opening half, a Ruben Prey three-pointer proved to be the difference for St. John’s as they only lead by 30-27 going into halftime of a low scoring affair.
In a potentially championship clinching game where a win would give them the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament, the Johnnies were coming up short.
Another foul committed by Ejiofor in the first three minutes served as a herald for the final half of regular season basketball, leaving the Red Storm without their captain for a large portion of the half.
With Ejiofor needing to sit out, someone had to pick up his scoring load and the always aggressive Joson Sanon (6 pts, 3-6 3PT) heeded the call.
Sanon knocked down two triples within a minute, bringing their lead to seven points and beginning a consistent three-point attack for St. John’s. An Oziyah Sellers (11 pts, 3-8 3PT) three-ball a few possessions later brought the Johnnies’ lead to a 44-35 advantage.
But across the next two minutes, all good will built up by St. John’s was erased. The Pirates rattled off eight unanswered points coming within one point of their lead, establishing that back-to-back regular season titles wouldn’t come easy for the Johnnies.
After holding this one possession lead for a contentious five minutes of gametime, the capable three-point shooting that last year’s St. John’s team was missing became the turning point in their quest for a repeat. Sellers nailed another massive shot from beyond-the-arc, separating these two teams by a more sizable 55-49 with seven minutes on the clock.
Seton Hall then scored a momentum stopping jump shot, one that proved to be inconsequential. Ejiofor, now checked back into the game, scored two straight buckets in the paint before Dylan Darling (9 pts, 5 asts, 3-6 FG) found a wide open Sellers in the corner.
This triple from Sellers put the Red Storm up by 11 at 62-51 as Pitino just needed to kill four more minutes to officially regain St. John’s throne atop the Big East. And they did just that.
Game management from the savvy Darling and veteran instincts of both Dillon Mitchell and Ejiofor on both sides of the ball carried the Johnnies across the finish line, barely. By a final score of 72-65, they survived a late game scare from the Pirates and became back-to-back Big East championships.
But as of right now, the Red Storm only own half of the trophy. Before their noon matchup against Marquette on March 7, the UConn Huskies are currently tied with St. John’s for the best record in the conference and all will be decided in Milwaukee.
If UConn wins, then they would share the title of Big East champions with the Johnnies but if they lose, then a sole conference championship will return to Queens. Regardless of a Huskies win or loss, St. John’s will still hold the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Big East Tournament, which tips off on March 12.
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