It’s the season that dreams are made of for the St. John’s basketball team and there is no end in sight to the Johnnie joyride.
The latest victory was perhaps its most impressive of the season – a buzzer beating overtime victory on the road against Marquette courtesy of Zuby Ejiofor. His shot nearly identical to his buzzer beater against Providence in December.
It was set up after a missed 3-pointer by RJ Luis when Kadary Richmond popped the rebound out of the hands of Chase Ross and into the lap of Simeon Wilcher who dished it to Ejiofor as the rest of the Red Storm rushed the court to celebrate.
ZUBY CALLED GAME...AGAIN‼️ pic.twitter.com/zvUcZD36Ze
— St. John's Men’s Basketball (@StJohnsBBall) March 8, 2025
“It always doesn’t look pretty on every single night, and it doesn’t matter,” Ejiofor said. “We fight through adversity. We are a gritty team, and we enjoy playing with each other.”
It would’ve been easy to ‘punt’ in Milwaukee for the Red Storm with the Big East regular season title already clinched and not have Deivon Smith (shoulder) available, but then you wouldn’t understand Rick Pitino.
“There’s not a whole lot to say except, ‘wow’,” Pitino explained. “It’s a hell of a win. Probably my favorite win of the season by far.”
No. 6 St. John’s (27-4, 18-2 Big East) was last on the floor a week ago against Seton Hall and Pitino voiced that he needed his team to get back to playing a better brand of basketball than what they showed against Butler and the Pirates.
“We practiced like we haven’t eaten in a week,” he said.
Ejiofor finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds while Richmond notched the first triple-double in St. John’s history since Ron Artest in 1999 with 10 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists.
RJ Luis, who capped off his Big East Player of the Year campaign with 28 points and 11 rebounds, forced overtime on a layup with 10.7 seconds remaining in regulation that tied the game at 75 that preceded a final defensive stop. Kam Jones, who finished with 32 points, tied the game on his only field goal of overtime before the St. John’s heroics.
No. 20 Marquette (22-9, 13-7 Big East) looked locked in early building an eight-point lead, 23-15, with 7:46 left in the first half but the Johnnies ripped off a 10-2 run to even the game and eventually led by one, 36-35, at halftime.
St. John’s returns to the floor on Thursday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) as the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament against either Providence or Butler inside Madison Square Garden.