“There’s no tournament, there’s just tomorrow night,” Rick Pitino said following No. 13 St. John’s victory in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament, the night before the Johnnies’ second straight year playing in the conference championship.
“We played the regular season like our lives were on the line, we will play tomorrow the same,” Pitino finished, emphasizing the life or death nature of the Red Storm’s final test before the NCAA Tournament.
Everyone likes a sequel, but a trilogy is the perfect way to close out a good story. Think of the first three Star Wars films, the Dark Knight Trilogy or the Lord of the Rings – the final fight is always the most memorable.
For the third time this season, the titans atop the big east do battle. The UConn Huskies traveled south to face St. John’s in a matchup for all the marbles.
Shirking the embarrassment of their 72-40 loss in Hartford a month ago, the Johnnies came out of the gates connecting on multiple haymakers. A rare Zuby Ejiofor (18 pts, 9 rebs, 7 blks) midrange shot began the scoring on the first possession, giving the Red Storm an early lead they continued to extend.
St. John’s started with 10 unanswered points posted on the scoreboard, creating an avalanche of momentum that the Huskies struggled to sift through. Ejiofor’s interior defense smothered UConn’s paint offense, sealing off Tarris Reed Jr. (17 pts, 7 rebs, 8-17 FG) from the flow of offense.
Forced to rely on perimeter shooting and second chance points, the Huskies were limited to just 14 points through the first 10 minutes of play, as the Johnnies maintained a double digit lead at 25-14.
For the remainder of the half, each team leaned on their strengths: the Huskies tried to evenly distribute scoring through all of their role players, their leading scorer through the half was Eric Reibe (6 pts, 2-3 FG) with six points. But the Red Storm used their stars to overpower UConn.
Ejofor, Bryce Hopkins (18 pts, 5 rebs, 7-9 FG) and Oziyah Sellers (14 pts, 5-5 FT) combined for 26 points, aided by another seven points from Dillon Mitchell (8 pts, 9 rebs) – this fixed scoring effort was more than enough to lead the Huskies through the first 20 minutes of play.
By a 40-27 advantage, St. John’s had to hold on to their 13 point lead for only 20 more minutes to sustain the glory they achieved a year ago. The key to suppressing UConn for the second half would be more stifling paint defense, as they held the Huskies to an abysmal 9-25 (36%) shooting split from the field while eliminating the three-ball (2-8, 25%).
But that message was received from both sides, a sloppy first five minutes saw the Johnnies’ guards constantly miss shots and open the door for a UConn comeback.
A 9-0 scoring run brought the Red Storm lead to under 10 for the first time since nine minutes remained in the first half, now they only trailed 47-38.
The sold out crowd of Madison Square Garden began to rally behind the Huskies, fueling the intensity of the moment and the continued struggles of St. John’s, as a cacophony of UConn chants crescendoed after a Reed layup brought the score to a manageable 49-42.
After a necessary timeout from Pitino, Hopkins nailed a clutch midrange shot to stop the bleeding. His partner in the front court, Ejiofor, responded to Dylan Darling’s (8 pts, 5 asts) heads-up steal with a three-pointer.
Mitchell then made his presence known by turning defense into offense as well, driving coast-to-coast for a flashy double pump slam to increase the lead back to 13 at 58-45.
The Huskies squandered a major chance to chip away at the Red Storm lead, grasping three offensive rebounds in one possession and not scoring a single basket. From there, the Johnnies had to hold on for five more minutes.
Which they did.
Ejiofor singlehandedly stopped the UConn offense’s production while Hopkins and Darling elevated the offense, pushing the lead to 20 points at 69-49.
St. John’s coasted to a final score of 72-52, raising a second trophy and solidifying themselves as rulers over the Big East for a second straight season. For the first time in program history, the Johnnies have won dual conference championships in back-to-back years (the first team to ever do so), amassing themselves as a dynasty within the NCAA’s toughest conference.
Ejiofor was unsurprisingly named the most outstanding player of the tournament: averaging 19.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks. He joins Mitchell and Hopkins on the all-tournament team, adding more accolades to a historic season.
“All you can do is approach every day in the best way possible,” Ejiofor said after the victory. “Just be the champions that we are.”
A tournament championship officially stamped their ticket to the NCAA Tournament, but their spot was reserved long ago, this victory just increases their potential seeding. The final step before St. John’s journey to the tournament will be Selection Sunday on March 15 to determine their seed and who they will face in the first round.
For play-by-play analysis, follow @TorchSports on X.
