Six days wasn’t long enough to accumulate any rust on the St. John’s basketball team.
After a three-day stretch at Madison Square Garden in which the Red Storm started on at least an 8-0 run in each game of the Big East Tournament, the No. 5 seed Johnnies started its Round of 64 matchup in the NCAA Tournament against No. 12 Northern Iowa on a 13-0 run and never looked back.
The result was a commanding 79-53 victory and a spot in the Round of 32 against either No. 4 Kansas or No. 13 California Baptist on Sunday.
St. John’s (29-6) started 11-for-17 from the floor while holding Northern Iowa to a 1-for-10 start which allowed the lead to grow to 17 points, 20-3, in the opening eight minutes.
The Red Storm advantage grew to as big as 21 points at the end of the first half before taking a 19-point advantage, 47-28, into the locker room.
Bryce Hopkins and Oziyah Sellers each scored 11 points in the opening half for the Johnnies, but Zuby Ejiofor led all scorers with 14 points as Hopkins finished with 13 points in the victory.
"We came out really strong and we were able to hold the lead," Ejiofor said after the victory. "They were a really tough opponent, you know, but we played together. We competed at a high level. And we understand, you know, the stakes -- nobody wants to go home. This is one step to the bigger goal."
The Panthers (23-13), playing at their desired slow pace in the second half, trimmed the lead to 13 points on two occasions after an 8-2 start coming out of the locker room but could never get closer to the Red Storm.
An 11-4 run headlined by four points from Ruben Prey pushed the St. John’s lead back to 20 points and after Northern Iowa made its last push and trimmed the margin to 15 points, Joson Sanon nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to give St. John’s its largest lead of the game, 73-50.
"Our guys did a tremendous job," Rick Pitino explained. "We knew what we had to do to win this game. The obvious thing is we had to get our tempo."
St. John’s has not advanced to the Sweet 16 since 1999 and will look to avenge last year’s loss in the Round of 32 against Arkansas.