Early in the week, Rick Pitino issued a challenge to his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He told his players they had reached only 60 to 70 percent of their potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think we can get a lot better defensively,\u201d the Hall of Fame coach told The Post then.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His players were listening, producing one of their best defensive performances of the season and one of their most complete efforts on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coming off an upset at No. 5 Connecticut, Creighton entered the Garden with momentum. From the jump, St. John\u2019s snatched it away and cruised to its 13th straight win after this 81-52 beatdown in front of 19,328 happy customers at MSG.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Bluejays piled up 91 points in stunning UConn. That got the 17th-ranked Red Storm\u2019s attention. They were ready, holding Creighton to its second-fewest points this season, a season-high-equaling 18 turnovers and 32.1 percent shooting. During a 25-4, second-half run, St. John\u2019s held its opponent without a made field goal for 8:45. <\/p>\n
Dillon Mitchell of the St. John\u2019s Red Storm puts up a shot during the first half when the St. John\u2019s Red Storm played the Creighton Bluejays Saturday, February 21, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Not a single Bluejay reached double figures as Creighton was held to a season-low 0.70 points per possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the best defense we played all season,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cThe guys were totally locked in because of their respect for Creighton\u2019s ability to score. It was just awesome defense the entire day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rick Pitino of the St. John\u2019s Red Storm reacts on the baseline during the first half when the St. John\u2019s Red Storm played the Creighton Bluejays Saturday, February 21, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
He later added: \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re after is that type of defense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was by far the best the Johnnies have looked since knocking off Connecticut just over two weeks ago. They had managed to keep winning despite not being at their best, gutting out victories over Xavier, Providence and Marquette.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n This was different. This was their \u201cA\u201d game. This screamed out a team capable of advancing deep through March. St. John\u2019s (22-5, 15-1) was suffocating defensively, efficient on the offensive end and showed no let-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Creighton (14-14, 8-9) may as well have started the buses early in the second half, once St. John\u2019s ripped off that 25-4 run to build a 31-point lead. Star forward Zuby Ejiofor sat the final 11:42, it was that lopsided.\u00a0<\/p>\n The frontcourt of Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell was dominant, combining for 36 points, 23 rebounds and 11 assists. Dylan Darling bounced back from an off game at Marquette with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Oziyah Sellers tallied 10. St. John\u2019s was plus-14 on the glass, plus-20 in points in the paint. The lone negative was they were just 3-for-14 shooting from 3-point range.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bryce Hopkins of the St. John\u2019s Red Storm puts up a shot as Owen Freeman of the Creighton Bluejays defends during the second half when the St. John\u2019s Red Storm played the Creighton Bluejays Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cWe played a great game today, one of the best games of the season,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cWhat we did today was brilliant in all facets of the game. Yes, we didn\u2019t make 3s certainly, but every other thing was brilliant. They were totally locked in. The walk-through was great. We got up at 7:30 to walk through. A lot of teams sleep in. I think they\u2019re a dedicated group, they all buy in, they all root for each other. They want it badly, and they\u2019re delivering.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The latest victory sets up a fascinating week, as St. John\u2019s will face the two teams chasing them in the Big East, Connecticut on Wednesday and Villanova on Saturday. <\/p>\n Beat those two, and a second straight outright conference regular-season crown is all but a lock, and a top-four protected seed in the NCAA Tournament would seem likely as well. <\/p>\n They\u2019ll have to guard like they did on Saturday to get it done.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe just know that not only is it going to win us games, that can win us championships \u2014 the defensive end,\u201d said Mitchell, who notched six points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers. \u201cIt won\u2019t mean anything if we don\u2019t come out with that same type of mindset, that same type of approach, next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early in the week, Rick Pitino issued a challenge to his team.\u00a0 He told his players they had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[18365,4044,222543,14601,99,14602],"class_list":["post-483068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-big-east","tag-college-basketball","tag-creighton-blue-jays","tag-rick-pitino","tag-sports","tag-st-johns-red-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}