St. John's beats Creighton to win Big East Tournament for first time since 2000
St. John's Red Storm forward Zuby Ejiofor and teammates celebrate after winning the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The final chapters of St. John’s season are yet to be written. But on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, the Red Storm’s 2024-25 team secured a place in the school’s basketball history — and New York’s.
By defeating Creighton, 82-66, in the Big East Tournament championship game, St. John’s secured its first conference title since 2000 and its fourth overall.
The 25 years between championships is the longest such gap in Big East history.
“Great win for the city, great win for our university,” coach Rick Pitino said after another milestone in his second season in Queens, and after a celebration on the court that went on for 45 minutes.
“You hear all along that it’s New York’s team, and it truly is. As a New Yorker myself, I’m very, very proud that St. John’s has gotten to this level.”
St. John’s (30-4), which could be in line for a No. 2 seed when the NCAA Tournament field is announced on Sunday, ran the Bluejays out of the building with a second half of stifling defense and hot shooting.
Top-seeded St. John’s shot 71.9% from the field in its 57-point second half and made 14 straight field goals in a 32-14 run.
The half featured 27 points from RJ Luis Jr., who added a Big East Tournament most outstanding player award to his regular-season player of the year honors.
“Wow, this is incredible,” said Luis, who finished with 29 points and 10 rebounds. “This has by far been the most emotional, happiest week of my 22 years of existence, so this is great.”
St. John’s has won nine games in a row and 19 of 20 this calendar year since a one-point loss at Creighton on New Year’s Eve.
The Red Storm finished 12-0 at the Garden, which on Saturday was dominated by St. John’s fans, whose roars were deafening down the stretch.
“We definitely fed off the crowd, the energy, the atmosphere,” Luis said. “It was ridiculous. It was very loud.”
St. John’s won its three Big East Tournament games by 21, 16 and 16 points.
The first two of its four Big East titles came in 1983 and ’86 under former coach Lou Carnesecca, who died at age 99 in November.
“After the game, you obviously think of Lou and how proud he would have been,” Pitino said.
No. 2 seed Creighton (24-10) is 0-5 in the Big East final.
“[St. John’s] dominated our league and pretty much saved their best for this conference tournament,” coach Greg McDermott said. “They just wear into you over time.”
St. John’s led 52-50 after Creighton made two free throws following a technical foul call against Luis that seemed to anger the Red Storm.
Pitino said Luis merely was signaling to the official that he had made a three-point field goal, but Pitino indicated the official thought Luis was making a gun-shooting motion with his fingers. “I don’t think RJ knows what a gun is,” Pitino said.
Perhaps the incident fired up the Red Storm.
St. John’s scored on three consecutive driving layups, two by Kadary Richmond and one by Luis, for a 58-50 lead with 7:28 left.
Pitino said that in the first half, St. John’s was intimidated by the inside defense of 7-1 Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner. “What we talked about at halftime was to take it to the rim, use the rim as a shield,” Pitino said. “He can’t cut through steel.”
It worked. When Luis made a layup with 5:16 left, it was 70-55.
St. John’s 14 consecutive field goals came in a 7:12 stretch during which the Red Storm turned a 41-38 deficit into that 70-55 lead.
Zuby Ejiofor scored 20 points and Richmond had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Creighton point guard Steven Ashworth shot 3-for-19 from the field. The Bluejays missed eight of their 16 free throws. Creighton got off to a 10-2 lead, but as it often does, St. John’s shrugged that off and quickly got back into the game. The Bluejays led 28-25 at halftime.
Luis missed the last 7:19 of the first half after picking up his second foul. He made up for that in a big way in the second half.
Soon he found himself sitting on the rim during the postgame celebration. “When I was little, I would see the guys go up to the ladders and cut the nets,” he said later. “Obviously, to do it myself is incredible. It’s a great feeling. I mean, I’m just truly blessed.”
On a memorable night at the Garden, he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Notes & quotes: Luis’ 29 points were the most in a Big East final since Villanova’s Jalen Brunson scored 31 in 2018 . . . Pitino became the first Big East coach to win Big East titles at two schools. He won three at Louisville . . . In addition to Luis, the all-tournament team featured Ejiofor, Richmond, Kalkbrenner, Marquette’s Kam Jones and Xavier’s Ryan Conwell.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.