NEW YORK, NY — For the first time since 2000, the St. John’s Red Storm are heading back to the Big East championsihp game, after beating the Marquette 79-63 on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
Kam Jones caused problems for the Johnnies, but a second-half surge from Zuby Ejiofor and Red Storm prevailed over the Golden Eagles. Ejiofor put the Red Storm on his back, putting together a 33-point night with nine rebounds.
“When Zuby came in, I put him through a hard player development session, St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino said. “The first thing I noticed is he never complained about the drills. He went through it and then he shot the ball really well and I said to his dad, ‘I got myself a hell of a player here…I said Zuby can do a lot of things, but every coach wants a player like him’… you get blessed coaching 50 years, there’s very few Zuby’s. He’s our captain.”
A win in the Big East title game on Saturday against Creighton, which would be its first conference championship in 25 years, would likely earn St. John’s a No. 2 seed at the NCAA Tournament, while a loss could hurt their chances. Selection Sunday will decide the Queens school’s fate this weekendjone.
It was a different story in the second half for the Red Storm, as they dominated from the charity stripe, got out in transition, and limited Jones. Shooting at a high percentage clip from the free-throw line is not something the Red Storm have done well this season. The Johnnies shot 72% from the line on 25 attempts.
The two teams were tied in fas-tbreak points at the half, with six apiece. In the second half, St. John’s outscored Marquette in transition, 8-1.
It was the Jones show in the first half, as the unanimous Big East First-Team selection poured in 15 of his 24 points. He shot 50% from the field and knocked down three jumpers from three-point land in the first half. In the second half, he shot four-of-nine from the field and missed all three shot attempts from behind the arc.
St. John’s outscored the Gold Eagles 44-26 in the second half. RJ Luis Jr., Kadary Richmond and Aaron Scott all had double figures in the win. Richmond recorded a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double.
