“We bent a little bit down the stretch… but we didn’t break, and Seton Hall breaks everybody,” Rick Pitino said following No. 13 St. John’s matchup against the Seton Hall Pirates, with aspirations to capture back-to-back Big East Championships.
The Johnnies were victorious in their first matchup of the weekend after downing Providence 85-72 in the quarterfinals, advancing to meet the Pirates, a team that played them close all season.
A Pirate layup pinned off the glass by Dillon Mitchell (13 pts, 6 rebs, 5 asts) in the first minute set the tone for St. John’s tenacious defense, mirroring their prior two matchups this season where Seton Hall did not score over 65 points.
On the other end, the Big East Player of the Year showed the voters that their choice went to the right man. Zuby Ejiofor (20 pts, 5 rebs, 8-14 FG) scored six of the Johnnies’ first 10 points and anchored their early 10-3 lead.
But a rogue three-ball from the Big East’s worst three-point shooting team (exactly 30%) left the Red Storm shellshocked. Mike Williams III’s (10 pts, 4-12 FG) triple opened up scoring for the Pirates, starting a 7-3 run that brought them within three points of St. John’s 10-7 lead.
Seton Hall’s scoring surge signaled to the Johnnies that they would need to earn their way into the Big East Championship. Over the course of the next 10 minutes of first half play, the Pirates had an answer for everything the Red Storm would try, as they never trailed by more than seven.
This lack of separation could be attributed to St. John’s one-dimensional offense, 20 of their first 22 points came from inside the paint – large in part due to Ejiofor and Mitchell. But all that changed on a dime within the final five minutes of the half.
Joson Sanon (15 pts, 3-5 3PT) connected on two threes within two minutes, bringing the lead back to eight points. Then an emphatic and dramatic and-one three-pointer allowed the Johnnies to finally lead by over double digits at 34-23.
“I said we needed some threes, I just did my thing,” Joson Sanon said after the contest, reflecting on his contributions in a dire moment.
After leading by 36-23 after another Mitchell bucket, the Red Storm fell back to earth. They would enter the low-scoring half only leading by 38-30. Outside of their lead on the scoreboard, St. John’s held advantages in rebounds by a 17-13 margin, while outscoring their opponent in a 24-18 in the paint.
The rigid tenacity that Seton Hall showed in the first half all but evaporated as they took the court for the final 20 minutes. The Pirates wouldn’t score until five minutes into the half and allowed the Johnnies to post 11 unanswered points.
As they led by a score of 49-30 in the second half, St. John’s journey back to the Big East championship for a second straight year seemed in reach.
Outside of a Dylan Darling (6 pts, 5 rebs) three-pointer, the Red Storm maintained their concentration on the paint. Ejiofor, Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins (13 pts, 7 rebs, 7-8 FTs) attacked the rim and if they missed, they would probably get a whistle. Their paint points and free throws accounted for 35 of their 40 second half points.
But after starting the second half hot, St. John’s defensive superiority began to wane. In an eerily similar rhyme to the first half, Seton Hall began to chip away and shift momentum to the side of the Pirates.
For the first time since the start of the half, the Johnnies’ lead dipped below double digits after Adam Clark (17 pts, 5-5 FTs) free throws brought Seton Hall closer to the 61-53 disadvantage. But the sirens fully went off for Red Storm after an AJ Staton-McCray (8 pts, 7 rebs) three-pointer brought that lead to six.
With embarrassment on the line, St. John’s leaned on their veterans to close out the contest. Hopkins, Sanon and Mitchell hit a combined 11 free throws in the final three minutes and allowed the Johnnies to secure a bid for back-to-back Big East Tournament championships, winning 78-68.
“I was asked how impressive it was to make it to two straight conference championships, but it’s really impressive to me that we beat Seton Hall three consecutive times,” Rick Pitino said after the victory, giving nothing but credit to his opponent.
The Red Storm have now swept the Pirates in all three of their matchups this season, all by a very thin margin. Seton Hall has been one of St. John’s most difficult matchups during their road to March, but not the most difficult.
The UConn Huskies have a chance to meet the Johnnies in the championship, as long as they take care of business against Georgetown. Whether it be against the Huskies or Hoyas, St. John’s will be back in the Big East Championship on March 14 at 6:30 p.m., with a chance to make history.
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