First place in the Big East was on the line for the St. John’s basketball team.
A win would land the No. 9 Johnnies a two-game advantage over No. 24 Creighton in the standings while a loss put the Bluejays in the driver’s seat for the conference’s regular season title based on a tiebreaker and the Red Storm would not disappoint the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s trailed by five, 53-48, with 14:51 remaining before Zuby Ejiofor would catch fire with a personal 6-0 run that gave the Johnnies a 56-53 lead that it would never relinquish, winning 79-73.
In typical St. John’s fashion, its victory was no Picasso.
The Red Storm (22-4, 13-2 Big East) only shot 38.4-percent from the field, 33.3-percent from 3-point range, and 58.6-percent from the free throw line. Its volume of free throw attempts was the biggest reason for its victory, making six more than Creighton.
“You guys are looking at basketball history,” Rick Pitino said as his team continues to win despite poor shooting numbers.
“You’re going to lose by double digits,” he explained what most teams would experience with those shooting numbers. “But every single night this team wins. It’s an amazing thing.”
The Johnnies win with its grit and hustle and no play encapsulated that more than a missed front end of a 1-and-1 from Zuby Ejiofor that resulted in RJ Luis winning an offensive rebound away from Creighton superstar Ryan Kalkbrenner with 58.4 seconds left that allowed him to extend the St. John’s lead to seven, 74-67.
Luis finished with a team-high 23 points and 14 rebounds as he continues his push towards the Big East Player of the Year while Ejiofor had 18 points, nine rebounds, and five assists with 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and four steals from Kadary Richmond.
Kalkbrenner went back to the locker room after injuring his foot midway through the second half and Creighton (18-8, 11-4 Big East) trailing by three, 56-53, before returning after six-minute absence with 3:47 remaining and his team down by only four, 66-62. However, he only took two shots after his return – a missed layup and a made dunk.
Creighton started the game hot, making 7-of-10 shots after missing its first three attempts from the field to build a 10-point lead that was quickly erased by St. John’s, which led 40-39 at halftime.
The Johnnies are now 6-1 in games they trail by at least 10 points in.
St. John’s will continue its path to a Big East regular season championship when traveling to Chicago for its second meeting of the season against DePaul (11-15, 2-13 Big East) on Wednesday night (9:00 p.m. ET, FS1).