It’s a St. John’s basketball redemption story that only took 29 days to write.
After a crushing buzzer beating loss in double overtime against Baylor in the Bahamas, the Red Storm felt what it was like to be on the other side against Providence on Friday night behind Zuby Ejiofor.
Ejiofor’s put-back floater after a Deivon Smith missed jumper gave the Johnnies a 72-70 victory that felt impossible to envision.
St. John’s trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half and trailed by 13 points, 42-29, at halftime as the Friars felt comfortable in its first home game since December 3, shooting 63.0-percent (17-of-27) from the field and 54.5-percent (6-for-11) from 3-point range.
The Red Storm did not make its comeback effort any easier by shooting an inconceivable 11-of-26 from the free throw line, and made 3-of-18 attempts from 3-point range, but had what was required to head back to New York with a victory.
“When you’re on the road and you shoot the ball like that, you’re going to lose 90-percent of the time,” Rick Pitino said. “We got very uptight at the foul line, but it never bothered them.”
Pitino voiced to his players at halftime and during timeouts in the second half that they would win the game, and they proved their coach correct.
“It’s nothing,” Pitino told his team when facing its large deficit. “I’ve been down 30 points with 15:30 to go on the road.”
“You’re going to come back and win this game, just be patient, take your time, one possession at a time.”
St. John’s took its first lead since early stages of the first half with 7:14 remaining behind a second chance bucket by Ejiofor, which would be a theme of the game as the Red Storm outscored Providence 23-4 on second chance points behind 18 offensive rebounds.
The Johnnies could not shake the Friars with its bad free throw shooting, but Smith put his team back in front with an ‘and-one’ with 4:03 left. St. John’s would never trail again in the game, but Bensley Joseph tied the action on Providence’s first 3-pointer of the second half with 18.8 seconds left.
“I have pride in going and getting my team a second chance. That's exactly what I did, find a way to get an offensive rebound and put it in the rim,” the St. John’s hero explained, who said that he never had a buzzer beater in his career.
Ejiofor, who finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds, took care of the rest for St. John’s first win on the road against Providence since 2017.
“We feel like we are turning the corner in a lot of areas,” Pitino added.
“Three weeks ago, with missing all those free throws – all those shots --, we lose by 12 to 16 points.”
The Friars (7-6, 1-1 Big East) did not have star Bryce Hopkins (left knee) as he continues to recover from a torn ACL suffered last season. Hopkins, an All-Big East talent, has only played three games this year and missed the last two contests – both defeats.
Providence made just 1-of-8 3-point attempts in the second half.
The win also marked the first time St. John’s won on a buzzer beater since Sir’Dominic Pointer against Saint Joseph’s in the 2013 NIT, and it was the first time the program erased at least a 13-point deficit at halftime for a victory during a conference game since 2010.
“Obviously, it was good to be on the good side of a buzzer beater and just win on the road,” Ejiofor said. “Showing your toughness, fighting through adversity, coming back in the second half and taking care of business. Everybody can go home and enjoy Christmas.”
A joyful Christmas it will be for St. John’s (10-2, 2-0 Big East) as the team will get a few days off before finishing its non-conference schedule against Delaware (7-5) on Saturday, December 28 (6:00 p.m. ET, FS1) in Queens.