St. John's squanders lead, falls to Baylor on double-overtime buzzer-beater in first loss of season

NASSAU, Bahamas — St. John’s played arguably its best 20 minutes of the season in the first half against No. 13 Baylor on Thursday night in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship semifinal.

Another half and two overtimes later, the Red Storm were slapped with one of their most gut-wrenching losses in recent memory.

“The only time it’s value is when you win,” coach Rick Pitino said. “When you lose, there’s no value to it.”

After Zuby Ejiofor missed two free throws with four seconds left in the second overtime, Baylor’s Jeremy Roach sank a buzzer-beating three-pointer to hand St. John’s a 99-98 loss.

“I just knew that if they’d miss the two free throws, I’d have a chance to redeem myself,” said Roach, a Duke transfer who missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have sealed the game in regulation.

After watching the Red Storm blow an 18-point first-half lead, Pitino was miffed by the collapse but reserved his sharpest remarks for the officials.

Before Ejiofor went to the line for the two free throws that could have sealed the win for St. John’s, Baylor coach Scott Drew initiated a replay review, saying a St. John’s player held a Baylor player. Pitino thought that stoppage iced Ejiofor and contributed to the two misses. He didn’t think Drew should have done it and didn’t think the officials should have bought it.

“I don’t know what to say. The referees didn’t do a very good job tonight,’’ Pitino said. “Icing my free-throw shooter there at the end was totally unethical. You can’t do something like that. [The referee] said the coach said we held him, which we did not do, clear as day. It’s an unethical move. I don’t like it. But that’s not the reason we lost.”

The Red Storm (4-1) hit 14 shots from three-point range in their bid to win a matchup of ranked teams for the first time since 2015.

Instead, they will face Virginia — which lost to No. 11 Tennessee, 64-42, on Thursday night — in a consolation game Friday.

The Red Storm, who stepped up a notch in competition during Sunday’s win over New Mexico, jumped another level Thursday night in the Caribbean, the team’s first appearance in the Bahamas since the 2021 Battle 4 Atlantis.

Ejiofor had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. Aaron Scott added 20 points, including a key three-pointer in the second overtime. Scott sank five three-pointers, including three in the final 7:48 of regulation.

What was anticipated to be St. John’s stiffest test thus far this season proved to be exactly that.

The Bears (4-1) — who were led by Norchad Omier’s 24 points and 10 rebounds and Roach’s 20 points — took their first lead on a jumper by Jayden Nunn with 2:41 to play.

Kadary Richmond’s jumper in the paint with seven seconds left tied the score at 77 and sent the game to overtime.

Richmond hit a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left in the first extra period to send the game into a second overtime. He finished with 14 points and seven assists.

St. John’s built a 44-30 halftime lead, thanks to disruptive and dominating defense and a three-point onslaught.

Baylor got going in the second half, hitting 10 three-pointers after the break, including three by former Long Island Lutheran star Jalen Celestine. VJ Edgecombe, a two-time Newsday Player of the Year out of LuHi, had 10 points and four rebounds.

“We broke down defensively in the second half,” Pitino said. “This is a team that had only taken 14 mid-range shots the whole year. It’s threes or the rim. And we gave up some three-point shots that nailed us in the end.”