St. John's Stifles Ole Miss To Win In Return To MSG

 

Joson Sanon burying a three-pointer from the left side halfway through the first half. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's defense was stifling on Saturday night, as they won a tight one, 63-58, over Ole Miss at Madison Square Garden.

The Red Storm are now 5-3 on the season, and they were led by Zuby Ejiofor, who had 15 points on 3-8 from the field, and poured in nine free throws, to go along with nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double, along with eight blocks and three steals.

Zuby was the only St. John's player to put up double figures in points, as he was followed by Bryce Hopkins who had eight points, and in a sign of how balanced their offense ultimately was, five players had seven points apiece - Joson Sanon, Dylan Darling, Oziyah Sellers, Dillon Mitchell, and Ian Jackson.

St. John's, ranked 23rd in the nation in the AP poll,  who had not played in 10 days, looked like it in the early going, and Ole Miss could not take advantage, as they also were slow to get going.

The Red Storm led 12-11 when Sanon buried a three-pointer from the left side at the 11:29 mark. That began an elongated 19-5 run over the next nearly seven minutes, capped by a Jackson three-pointer at 4:42 that made it 31-16.

Ole Miss closed the first half with a 9-2 clip, so they pared the Red Storm's lead to 33-25 going into halftime.

The first-half numbers , were, as colleague David Russell pointed out, what you would expect from a noon tip. (the game was at 8:00 p.m., usually optimal for athletes).

St. John's shot 33.3 percent, or 9-27, from the field, including a meager 3-14 (21.4%) from behind the arc, while Ole Miss shot a slightly better 36.5 percent, only because they made one more basket and took one less shot, 9-26 from the field, and a putrid 1-7 (14.3 %) on three-pointers.

In the second half, St. John's began to take over the game, maintaining a 10-point edge throughout that bulked up to 14, at 51-37, on a Sadiku Ibine Ayo three-pointer with 8:06 remaining.

Just as in the first half, Ole Miss made a late move, and they pulled to within three, at 56-53, with 58 seconds remaining on a Malik Dia layup.

Darling responded by making a pair of free throws at 0:45, and then Travis Perry missed a three-point attempt at 0:32 before Ejiofor came down with the rebound and was fouled. Ejiofor buried his free throws to put St. John's up seven, 60-53, and seal the win.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "I'm real excited with the victory. It wasn't easy, it was very difficult, as we knew it would be. We had to play great defense tonight. We worked on it all week and the guys did a fabulous job of playing great defense."

On late game execution: "We made (Ole Miss) take bad shots at the end of the game. Our defense was there. That's a winning attitude there, and our defense hasn't been as good as it was tonight."

On Zuby Ejiofor: "The most impressive thing to me was he didn't let frustrations stand in the way. He didn't even think about the fact that he only had two points (at halftime). He just kept grinding and grinding, and it's easy to coach him."

On believing in this group: "I told them how much confidence I have in them. I believe in them. I think they're going to be a very good basketball team."

On the college basketball landscape: "We knew Iowa State was a really good basketball team. I think Baylor is a great team. I think Michigan was a great team. I think (Alabama) is a good team. I think Auburn is a good team. There are growing pains in every program in the country right now. If you look at the teams that are playing great, there's a lot of (returning) players back."

On not making excuses for previous losses: "I always feel excuses are a sign of weakness. When you make excuses, regardless of what it may be or what I think, it's a weakness. You can't show weakness."