The St. John’s basketball team did not have a great weekend in the Bahamas after dropping two winnable games against No. 13 Baylor and Georgia. A 25-point victory against Virginia was sandwiched between the losses, but it remains a disappointing trip.
Members of the team said its loss to the Bears forced it to come closer together after Zuby Ejiofor missed two free throws in double overtime that either could have iced the game or pushed its lead to three with 4.1 seconds left.
Instead, Baylor guard Jeremy Roach hit a controversial buzzer beating 3-pointer for the victory.
Rick Pitino has named Sadiku Ibine Ayo as a co-captain alongside Kadary Richmond and Ejiofor less than 24 hours after the team returned to New York.
“Sadiku exemplifies every quality we want in a St. John’s man – selfless and team first,” Pitino said in a press release on Monday morning.
The Hall of Famer posted on social media that it was a “team consensus” to name Ejiofor and Richmond as captains in October. Now, they have a third captain just over a month later.
Ibine Ayo has played in five of seven games for the Johnnies this season, including a season-high 13 minutes against Virginia in which he scored six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
This is the second season that the Ghana native has been with the Johnnies after he followed Pitino to Queens from Iona. He played in 25 games with the Gaels, starting four, while averaging 2.6 points per game.
He was limited to just five games last season, not scoring a point in any of the contests, before suffering a season ending injury.
St. John’s (5-2) does not return to the court until Saturday evening when it hosts Harvard (5:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) at Carnesecca Arena.