Zuby Ejiofor’s triple-double helps St. John’s blow out Villanova, bounce back from UConn loss
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — Rick Pitino didn’t downplay it.
Ahead of Saturday night’s crucial meeting with Villanova at Madison Square Garden, Pitino declared it “the most important game” in his three years at St. John’s.
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That’s because three days earlier, St. John’s suffered a sobering 32-point loss to UConn that complicated its pursuit of a Big East title.
Pitino knew St. John’s needed a strong response.
And boy, did the Red Storm deliver.
No. 15 St. John’s bounced back with a commanding 89-57 victory over Villanova at Madison Square Garden to keep pace in the Big East race.
Zuby Ejiofor recorded his first-ever triple-double, erupting for 16 points, 12 rebounds, a career-high 10 assists and three blocks.
It was an emphatic return to form by Ejiofor, who managed only six points on 2-of-5 shooting and four rebounds in Wednesday’s loss.
“The response was everything,” Ejiofor said in his on-court postgame interview.
The Red Storm (23-6, 16-2 Big East) opened Saturday’s game on an 11-2 run and never looked back, leading by as many as 30 points in the first half alone.
After missing its final 24 shots in Wednesday’s 72-40 loss to UConn, St. John’s made 14 of its first 22 shots Saturday.
Ian Jackson scored a team-high 19 points with a career-high five assists off the bench, fueling a St. John’s defense that forced 16 turnovers.
The victory completed a regular-season sweep of third-place Villanova (22-7, 13-5) and ensured St. John’s will be no lower than the No. 2 seed in the Big East Tournament.
St. John’s is still a half-game behind No. 6 UConn for first place in the Big East but, more importantly, remains tied with the Huskies in the loss column. UConn improved to 17-2 in conference play Saturday by eking out a 71-67 victory over Seton Hall.
Pitino gave a sellout crowd of 19,812 a pregame jolt when he emerged from the Garden tunnel in a new, custom white suit he had tailored for Saturday night’s “white out” game.
Following Wednesday’s lopsided loss, Pitino contemplated wearing something more traditional, reasoning that a white suit should be “a celebratory thing, and right now, I’m not in a celebratory mood.”
But Pitino’s commitment to the garish get-up seemed to signal St. John’s wouldn’t panic after the UConn rout.
And indeed, St. John’s looked much more like the team that had won 13 games in a row going into Wednesday than the one that had no answers for Dan Hurley’s Huskies.
St. John’s point guard Dylan Darling made his first start since Dec. 6, filling a role normally occupied by Jackson, who recently returned from an ankle injury.
Darling gave St. John’s an early spark, scoring or assisting on each of the Red Storm’s first four baskets as they jumped out to an 11-2 advantage.
Jackson then gave the Johnnies a boost off the bench with a team-high 11 points in the first half, including a windmill dunk after a steal that put St. John’s up, 28-14.
Ejiofor got going later in the half, at one point drilling a 3-pointer and finishing an alley-oop dunk — both on assists from Oziyah Sellers — on back-to-back possessions.
St. John’s shot 19 of 33 (57.6%) in the first half and took a 48-23 lead into the break.
Villanova opened the second half on a 15-7 run, but coming out of a timeout, Sellers nailed a 3-pointer to put St. John’s back up by 20.
Sellers finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
With the outcome all but decided, Ejiofor picked up his final two assists late in the second half, first on a jumper by Sadiku Ibine Ayo, and then on another by Joson Sanon.
When Sanon’s shot went through the net with 3:12 remaining, a rowdy crowd gave Ejiofor a hearty cheer.
It was the second triple-double by a St. John’s player in the last 25 years, with the other coming from Kadary Richmond last season.
“We know that people want to see how we respond to [the UConn loss]; if we’re able to respond to this or if we crumble,” Sellers said before Saturday’s game. “I feel like none of us have that personality. I feel like we’ll be able to bounce back in the right way.”
St. John’s has two games remaining: Tuesday night against last-place Georgetown (13-16, 5-13) at the Garden, and Friday night against Seton Hall (19-10, 9-9) in Newark, N.J.
UConn has only one game left, with a road meeting with Marquette (10-18, 5-12) set for Saturday.
All of that sets up a very big week to decide the Big East.