St. John's Cruises By UConn With “Championship-level defense”

 

Zuby Ejiofor (24) set off a celebration after he slammed one home with 9:50 left that put St. John's ahead, 68-55. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm made their latest statement with another win over the defending National Champions, the Connecticut Huskies, but this time it was in dominating fashion, 89-75, on Sunday afternoon at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

The Red Storm are now 24-4 overall, and 15-2 in Big East play, best in the conference. Connecticut fell to 18-9 overall, and 10-6 in the Big East. Creighton is in second place in the Big East, with a record of 12-4, now 2 1/2 games behind St. John's after they beat Georgetown, 80-69, on Sunday evening.

St. John's has now matched the most wins in Big East Conference play with 15, which was done in 1984-85. It is their first sweep of UConn in a season series since 1999-2000.

"I thought we played our best game," St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino said of their performance, and made it clear what their motivation going forward. "We've got three games left, we want this Big East crown badly, not only for the players, but for the fans who came back like I never expected, so we're very excited about being in the hunt."

After losing at home to the Red Storm on February 7, UConn came out trying to make a statement, as they raced out to a 6-0 edge, but that was nearly erased as RJ Luis Jr. and Deivon Smith buried three-pointers to make cut it to 8-6.

UConn was still ahead 20-19 at the 10:15 mark of the first half when St. John's went on one of their trademark streaks.

Over the next 4:25, St. John's went on a 16-2 run capped by a Deivon Smith three-pointer that made it 35-22 at the 5:50 mark. 

One player who played a big part in the run, as he entered at 8:52, was Lefteris Liotopolous, who drained a three-pointer and was a +12 in his 5:47 of action. As Theo Kojak said, "Who loves ya baby?"

Soon after was one of the most remarkable possessions of St. John's season, which started with a Luis Jr. three-pointer at the 4:23 mark.

As it went down, Zuby Ejiofor hit the deck, as it appeared that UConn's Samson Johnson gave him the sloo foot. The refs called a fall on Johnson and when they reviewed it, he actually hit Ejiofor across the chest to knock him down.

The result was a flagrant foul, which meant two shots for Ejiofor and possession for St. John's. 

Ejiofor hit the two free throws, and then Aaron Scott buried a three, capping an eight-point trip down the floor for the Red Storm, and a 43-26 lead.

Aaron Scott races back up court after his three-pointer capped the eight-point possession. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Red Storm maintained a 15-point edge the rest of the first half, and that built up to 18, at 50-32, when Connecticut had the ball with 48 seconds left.

Alex Karaban missed a jumper in the paint at the 30-second mark, and then Hassan Diarra for he offensive rebounds before Liam McNeeley missed a three-poiner.

Diarra snatched another offensive rebound before McNeeley missed a chance in the paint before Johnson grabbed an offensive board. Solo Ball tried a floating jumper that rimmed out, and there then was an offensive rebound. 

Karaban got another shot up with four seconds left before Diarra got another offensive rebound, but it was knocked out of bounds off St. John's. McNeeley attempted a corner three-pointer as time expired, but it was an air ball as time expired, leaving them without a point after all that effort.

St. John's going for the steal and eventually knocking the ball out of bounds with two seconds left. Photo by Jason Schott.

St. John's shot 45.5 percent, or 45.3 percent, from the field, and 8-16 on three-point attempts, an even 50 percent, remarkable for how they have shot it from long range this season. They held UConn to 38.7 percent, or 38.7 percent, from the field, and 1-10, or 10%, from behind the arc.

That lead became 22 points early in the second half after a fast-break layup from Kadary Richmond, followed by a turnover then a layup from Scott to make it 54-32 at the 18:36 mark. That prompted UConn to take a timeout.

From then on, the Huskies started to get into a rhythm, over the next six minutes, they pulled within nine, at 62-53, on a Karaban three-pointer at the 12:36 mark.

That was as close as UConn would get, and their Head Coach Dan Hurley was asked if he saw that as chance they had to win the game, and he said, "I mean, we had a shot. That's where it's kind of been like, obviously, our quality is way off from where it's been, and, for a variety of reasons, but there was an opportunity there. You know, we ran a pitch with a backscreen, and we had Karaban open underneath the basket to cut it to seven, and the pass was a little bit off, they didn't gather it, and turned it over. That was a chance to cut it to seven and to put some significant game pressure on them."

RJ Luis watches his fadeaway jumper that made it 61-48 at the 13:15 mark of the second half. Photo by Jason Schott.

Over the next six minutes, that lead would go back to 18, at 76-58 St. John's, when Scott grabbed an offensive rebound and slammed one home with 6:39 left.

That settled things down for St. John's, and they made it a 20-point lead, 89-69, on an Ejiofor dunk after he snatched an offensive rebound.

St. John's shot even better in the second half, at a 48.4 percent clip, or 15-31, while holding UConn to 39.3%, or 11-28, from the field, and 5-13 from behind the arc.

The Red Storm forced 18 turnovers, which they scored 24 points off of, while only committing 12, of which UConn only turned into 10 points.

Hurley said of how tough St. John's is to compete against, "I think from a defensive standpoint, you know, they're clearly better than, I mean, they're elite. They've got a championship-level defense, I think they have championship-level offensive rebounding, and obviously, you know, how their season goes from here is going to, in a large point, come down to can they make enough shots."

Kadary Richmond watching his layup go through the hoop that gave St. John's a 72-56 edge with 8:37 left. Photo by Jason Schott.

All five St. John's starters scored in double figures, led by Kadary Richmond and Zuby Ejiofor pouring in 18 points each. Richmond shot 6-13 from the field, with four assists, three rebounds, and two steals. Ejiofor was a near perfect 5-6 shooting, with 8-9 at the free throw line, and he snagged nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double, with six assists and two steals.

RJ Luis Jr. finished with 14 points (4-18 FG, 3-6 threes), five rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. Aaron Scott had 13 points (5-11 FG, 2-6 threes), eight rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Deivon Smith had 12 points (4-7 FG, 2-3 threes), eight assists, seven rebounds, and a steal.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "Well, I'm incredibly delighted with this victory. Especially when they cut it to nine on some great plays, we were in the huddle and Zuby [Ejiofor] said, ‘Look, we've battled injuries. We don't wilt. We've been there before. We know what to do.’ I was really proud of that. I think once Deivon [Smith] got healthy again, I think our offense picked up. It's not about shooting. It's about the type of shots that you get and he got everybody great shots in that first half. That's why we had 50 points. So he had a big game for us.”

On Aaron Scott and Deivon Smith’s play: “Aaron [Scott] here was bleeding, getting every shot, me getting on him, and he's bleeding, can't talk back. He just was a warrior out there. Gave us everything he had. Once [Deivon] came back, the whole tempo of our offense changed. You don't see too many players like him in the country, so we're overly delighted.”

 

On the crowd tonight at Madison Square Garden: “Great Garden crowd, hopefully, we'll sell out with Seton Hall. We got three games left. We want this BIG EAST crown badly, not only for the players, but for the fans who came back like I never expected. We're very excited about being in the hunt.”

 

On tonight’s impressive performance: “When you play against [UConn], it's very difficult, because they shoot the three so well and they get to the foul line, they run great stuff offensively. This was the best offensive-defensive game we played all season. Deivon [Smith] has a lot to do with it because our pace picks up. When you score 50 points in a half against a Connecticut team, you're playing really good offense, really good defense. I mean, you look at it, 20 assists, only 12 turnovers. We shoot 47 percent, 42 percent from three, 78 percent from the line. That's a hell of a game. And when you force all those turnovers and don't turn it over, you have 11 blocks and 11 steals. It's quite a performance by our guys.”

 

On Kadary Richmond and Simeon Wilcher: “[Kadary Richmond] is a big-time player. Rebounds, steals, points. He always makes big plays, but they all did. I thought Simeon Wilcher made some big plays down the stretch.”

 

On what makes Deivon Smith so good: “I think Deivon [Smith] gets our players great shots, because he's so fast that they have to help, and he got his great shots. Now tonight, he had eight assists, he's got seven rebounds. For a six-foot guard, he's quite a basketball player.”

 

On Zuby Ejiofor: “There are very few people like Zuby [Ejiofor], very few in today's college basketball scene. He just is a workhorse, he never gets tired. How many minutes did he play? 34 minutes tonight, and he was active on everyone.”

 

On what makes his team so good: “You know what I love about this team? They all buy into the defense, but on offense, they're all so different. RJ [Luis Jr.] is so much different than Aaron [Scott] and Zuby [Ejiofor]. So, it's a different type of basketball team. I'm real proud of them, but it's the defense that turns into offense that makes us go.”

 

On the next two games and possibly clinching a BIG East title: “Well, winning the Big East [regular season title] would mean a lot. Obviously, it's going to be a whiteout [against Seton Hall next Saturday]. We're hoping to have 19,000 people because that's why we moved it [to MSG]. I think being senior night, the last game of the season, I think the fans are going to bring it in a big way for our players, who have given the fans so much delight. So, we're hoping for a big night, but we're going to focus on Butler right now, because Butler is a hell of an offensive basketball team, outstanding talent, and we've got to win these games to get this BIG EAST crown.”