{"id":657084,"date":"2026-03-15T09:22:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657084\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T09:22:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:22:34","slug":"st-johns-blows-out-uconn-to-win-2nd-consecutive-big-east-tournament-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657084\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John’s blows out UConn to win 2nd consecutive Big East Tournament title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zuby Ejiofor<\/a> got his wish.<\/p>\n

Following last month\u2019s 32-point loss to UConn<\/a>, the St. John\u2019s<\/a> star left Huskies head coach Dan Hurley with a parting message.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe muttered something like, \u2018I\u2019ll see you again, my man,\u2019\u201d Hurley said at the time<\/a> on ESPN\u2019s \u201cSportsCenter.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in Saturday night\u2019s Big East Tournament final, Ejiofor and No. 13 St. John\u2019s avenged that defeat in the most emphatic of fashions.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s blew out No. 6 UConn, 72-52, at Madison Square Garden to win its second consecutive Big East Tournament championship.<\/p>\n

Ejiofor was the driving force, erupting for 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, nine rebounds, seven blocks and three steals.<\/p>\n

He tied for the team lead in scoring and rebounds while anchoring a defense that forced 17 turnovers and held UConn without a field goal for the final 8:03.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a target on our backs, and we had to battle through adversity all season,\u201d Ejiofor said. \u201cAnd these guys, they earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four days after he was named the unanimous Big East Player of the Year<\/a>, Ejiofor was crowned the conference tournament\u2019s Most Outstanding Player. He averaged 19.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in wins over Providence<\/a>, Seton Hall<\/a> and UConn.<\/p>\n

Bryce Hopkins scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting with five rebounds in Saturday\u2019s win, while Dillon Mitchell contributed nine points and nine rebounds.\u00a0Both were named to the Big East\u2019s All-Tournament Team.<\/p>\n

It all added up to the fifth Big East Tournament championship in St. John\u2019s history. This is the first time the program has won back-to-back Big East Tournament titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much history with St. John\u2019s,\u201d head coach Rick Pitino said, \u201cand we brought it all back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s rematch was practically inevitable after the top-seeded Red Storm (28-6) and second-seeded Huskies (29-5) reigned as the conference\u2019s top dogs all season.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s won the Big East regular-season championship with an 18-2 record in conference play, narrowly eclipsing the Huskies\u2019 17-3 mark.<\/p>\n

The rivals split their regular-season series, with St. John\u2019s beating UConn, 81-72, at the Garden<\/a> on Feb. 6, and the Huskies returning the favor with that 72-40 rout in Hartford on Feb. 25.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s missed its final 24 shots in that blowout loss, going the last 17:28 without making a field goal. The 32-point margin of victory was UConn\u2019s largest ever against St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never mentioned revenge, because we have so much respect for Connecticut,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cWe just talked about [the] championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game started in a dramatically different manner than how the last one finished.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s made its first three shots, beginning with a tone-setting jumper by Ejiofor on the opening possession.<\/p>\n

The Red Storm started the game on a 10-0 run, with Oziyah Sellers scoring six of those points.<\/p>\n

And St. John\u2019s delivered smothering defense to match the hot offensive start. Before the Huskies made their first field goal, St. John\u2019s forced two misses late in the shot clock; a five-second violation; and an offensive foul on star UConn center Tarris Reed Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just really jumped us to start the game,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cI think we knew that it would be a very forceful response from them, and we just weren\u2019t able to match it.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s opened its lead up to 47-29 early in the second half, but the Huskies had a run in the them.<\/p>\n

After going scoreless in the first half, UConn freshman Braylon Mullins \u2014 a potential NBA lottery pick \u2014 scored five quick points, including a 3-pointer that made it a 47-36 game with 15:57 remaining.<\/p>\n

Three more baskets by Reed cut the UConn deficit to 49-42 with less than 13 minutes to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to waste a timeout, which infuriated me,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cI said to them, \u2018You are fatiguing. Don\u2019t let this clock run out. You\u2019ve got to keep the pressure on them offensively. Johnnies don\u2019t get tired.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That message clicked, as Hopkins drilled a jumper out of the timeout. After a Dylan Darling steal on the other end, Ejiofor hit a 3-pointer to boost the Red Storm\u2019s lead back up 12.<\/p>\n

The biggest highlight came with about nine minutes left, when Ejiofor blocked Silas Demary Jr. at the rim, leading to a Mitchell windmill dunk in transition. Darling then scored on three straight possessions as St. John\u2019s pulled away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to be resilient to come out with a win like this,\u201d Ejiofor said.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s victory completed a Big East Tournament run in which St. John\u2019s never trailed. It opened all three games on runs of 8-0 or better.<\/p>\n

When St. John\u2019s hired Pitino in 2023, the Huskies were the Big East\u2019s undisputed heavyweights. UConn maintained that billing in Pitino\u2019s first year, winning the conference\u2019s regular-season and conference-tournament championships in 2024 \u2014 along with its second straight national championship.<\/p>\n

But the Big East has belonged to St. John\u2019s ever since.<\/p>\n

This is the second year in a row the Red Storm won both the conference\u2019s outright regular-season and conference-tournament crowns.<\/p>\n

They did it this year with a new roster, as Ejiofor was the only returning starter. Newcomers Hopkins, Mitchell, Sellers and Darling all contributed Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first [Big East Tournament championship] was truly special. Obviously, it was the first time that I experienced winning at such a high level,\u201d Ejiofor said. \u201cBut this second time \u2026 it was more so about the new guys that came in. I wanted to win for them. I wanted them to feel the thrill of winning a championship here in MSG. And we accomplished that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s now looks to embark on a deeper NCAA Tournament run than last year, when it was a No. 2 seed but eliminated in the second round.<\/p>\n

The Red Storm will learn their seed and first-round draw<\/a> on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so rewarding that all the work we put in [during] the summer, and all the long days, the long nights, the ups and downs, it paid off,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cWe\u2019re not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zuby Ejiofor got his wish. Following last month\u2019s 32-point loss to UConn, the St. John\u2019s star left Huskies…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":657085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,277225,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,30692,36434,23320,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,51599],"class_list":["post-657084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-big-east-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-rick-pitino","tag-st-johns","tag-uconn","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zuby-ejiofor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116232463779593508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}