St. John's beats Marquette, reaches first Big East Tournament final since 2000 behind Zuby Ejiofor's 33 points
It was a moment a quarter-century in the making.
St. John’s dream season continued on Friday night with a 79-63 victory over Marquette in a Big East Tournament semifinal at Madison Square Garden.
The result: The Red Storm’s first Big East final berth since 2000, when they won the championship. They will meet Creighton, a 71-62 winner over UConn in the late semifinal, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Zuby Ejiofor led the Red Storm with 33 points — the most for a St. John’s player in a Big East Tournament game — and nine rebounds. He scored 23 of his points in the second half.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Ejiofor said of his big night.
Now St. John’s — which came back from a 24-9 deficit — has one more big night before the NCAA Tournament.
“This is crazy, man,” RJ Luis Jr. said. “This is a blessing no matter how the night goes. It’s just a blessing to be here and to play in that championship game.
“I can’t wait. I know the guys are very excited. We’re happy. The possibility to win a championship is right there.”
In addition to the conference title, a victory could earn St. John’s a No. 2 seed in the NCAAs, which start next week.
St. John’s (29-4) continued a season-long pattern of overcoming deficits to win, this time outscoring Marquette 68-34 in a span of 29 1⁄2 minutes to erase the early 15-point hole.
“There’s not panic in this stock market,” coach Rick Pitino said. “These guys don’t panic. Down, they dig in, they play hard.”
The Red Storm have won eight games in a row and are 18-1 this calendar year. They also are 11-0 at the Garden.
Kam Jones led No. 5 seed Marquette (23-10) with 24 points, but after a hot start that included 10 points in a row early in the game, the Red Storm mostly stymied him.
“St. John’s really turned the tables,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “Their aggressiveness ramped up, their physicality, their ability to win the elbows, their ability to get to the foul line.”
Marquette had 17 turnovers and six assists. St. John’s had 11 turnovers and 17 assists. “That’s huge,” Pitino said.
Ejiofor, the Big East’s Most Improved Player, thanked Pitino and his teammates for how far he has come. “It’s been a crazy ride,” he said.
In one second-half stretch, he scored 15 of 17 St. John’s points and assisted on the other two.
“He was a monster tonight,” Luis said.
Friday night’s game began awfully for St. John’s as Marquette shot well, especially Jones. It was 24-9 with 12:42 left in the first half.
“Not stunned,” Kadary Richmond said. “It was early in the first half. There’s a lot of basketball to play . . . We know what we’re capable of.”
St. John’s responded by scoring eight points in a row on a three-point basket by Aaron Scott, a three-point play by Luis and a dunk by Ejiofor.
When Richmond went coast-to-coast for a layup to make it 29-26, many fans at the Garden rose to their feet and a chant of “John-nies! John-nies!” broke out.
St. John’s erased the last of the 15-point deficit when Deivon Smith made a three-pointer 5:08 before halftime to tie it at 31-31.
St. John’s led 46-45 with 16:07 left in the game, at which point it scored nine points in a row to take charge.
The Golden Eagles got back to within 57-53, but when Ejiofor made a three-point play and added two free throws with 7:42 left, it was back to 64-54.
Ejiofor’s lay-in and subsequent dunk made it 70-56 with 5:26 left, and Marquette was through. The lead later grew to 19 at 77-58 with 3:04 left.
“This was a brilliant night for us,” Pitino said, then added something no St. John’s coach has been able to say in 25 years: “Now we’re in the championship game.”
Notes & quotes: Walter Berry, the 1986 Big East Player of the Year, was in St. John’s locker room and embraced and spoke to Luis, this year’s honoree . . . Ejiofor’s 33 points were the most in a Big East semifinal since Kemba Walker scored 33 for UConn in 2011. The record is 35 by Syracuse’s Sherman Douglas in 1987 . . . The previous St. John’s record for a Big East Tournament game was 29, reached five times, most recently by Malik Sealy in 1992 . . . St. John’s bench scored three points . . . St. John’s had been 0-6 against Marquette in the Big East Tournament.
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.
