St. John’s already proved itself as a contender again in the Big East but Saturday night in Philadelphia was a measuring stick game against Villanova.
The winner would stand alone in second place in the league and emerge as the main threat to UConn to win the regular season, and the Johnnies were up for the challenge winning 86-79.
It was led by a second half surge and if you blinked you would’ve missed it. St. John’s outscored Villanova 20-4 out of the locker room to lead by 17 points, 56-39, its largest lead of the game before the Wildcats tried to mount an answer.
The Red Storm (13-5, 6-1 Big East) scored on 12-of-13 possessions to begin the second half as Ian Jackson and Oziyah Sellers each had nine points in the stretch while Bryce Hopkins added seven points.
Hopkins finished with 22 points in the victory, scoring 13 in the second half, while Jackson added 18 points in his best performance since joining the Johnnies.
“I think a performance like this is a testament to the preparation you put in,” Jackson explained. “I’m a competitor. I want to be out there and trying to help our team win in any way possible.”
Villanova (14-4, 5-2 Big East) cut its deficit to as little as five on multiple occasions but could never get closer.
A 17-6 run brought the Red Storm lead to 69-64 with 6:36 remaining as Hopkins would answer with a layup to calm the waters for the Johnnies. With the St. John’s lead at six, 72-66, Zuby Ejiofor and Joson Sanon delivered two clutch baskets to keep Villanova at bay.
For Sanon, it was his second triple of the second half that halted the Wildcats momentum and tilted the game in St. John’s favor. Ejiofor put the game away with layup that extended the St. John’s lead to seven, 82-75, with 33.7 left as the Johnnies would salt things away at the free throw line.
St. John’s started the game hot, building a seven-point first half lead and holding Villanova to only one made field goal over a near seven-minute stretch yet only led by one, 36-35, at halftime.
The Red Storm have now won three straight Quad 1 games and its four consecutive road wins to begin the season are the most since 1982-83.
The Johnnies will look to add a Quad 2 victory to its resume on Tuesday night (7:00 p.m. ET, FS1) inside Madison Square Garden against Seton Hall (14-4, 4-3 Big East).