Zuby Ejiofor waved his hands above his head, imploring the St. John\u2019s fans to get louder.<\/p>\n
Booming \u201cLet\u2019s go, Johnnies\u201d chants followed into the timeout. <\/p>\n
The large Connecticut contingent had gone quiet.<\/p>\n
The Red Storm weren\u2019t just going to repeat as Big East Tournament champions for the first time in program history. <\/p>\n
They were doing it going away, treating the Huskies like they didn\u2019t belong on the same court.<\/p>\n
There was still 3:26 left on the clock, but that didn\u2019t matter. <\/p>\n
It was a formality by now, the lead up to 20. St. John\u2019s slapped away the Huskies\u2019 second-half push, and blitzed them when it was winning time.<\/p>\n
Soon, confetti would be falling from the roof, after this 72-52 beatdown at a sold-out Garden. <\/p>\n
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Dillon Mitchell dunks the ball during St. John\u2019s 72-52 win over UConn in the Big East title game on March 14, 2026. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Ejiofor\u2019s final college game at MSG was going to end in a dream-like fashion, the entire building chanting \u201cZuuuuby,\u201d as he exited the game for the final time. <\/p>\n
Tears streamed down his cheeks.<\/p>\n
When Connecticut had gotten within seven, Ejiofor refused to let the game get away. <\/p>\n
He hit a 3-pointer, scored in the lane, blocked a shot that led to a Dillon Mitchell windmill jam. <\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s put it away late with a 13-0 run, led by Dylan Darling, the little point guard from Idaho State finding his game at just the right time.<\/p>\n
It was only a few weeks ago that St. John\u2019s was humbled, beaten by 32 points by these same Huskies in Hartford, Conn. <\/p>\n
The Johnnies responded like a champion, winning six straight since then. <\/p>\n
Zuby Ejiofor reacts during the St. John\u2019s win against UConn on March 14. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Saturday night they got revenge, making Connecticut tap in the building their fans like to call \u201cStorrs South,\u201d holding them without a point over the span of 6:48.<\/p>\n
Ejiofor turned in a masterpiece: 18 points, nine rebounds, seven blocks and three steals. <\/p>\n
Bryce Hopkins followed with 18 points and Oziyah Sellers had 14. <\/p>\n
Mitchell chipped in nine points and nine rebounds. <\/p>\n
UConn, held to 34 percent shooting and 3-for-18 from 3-point range, was led by Tarris Reed Jr.\u2019s 17 points.<\/p>\n
Zuby Ejiofor dunks the ball during the St. John\u2019s Big East championship win on March 14. Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Pitino couldn\u2019t have scripted a better first 8:27. <\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s scored the game\u2019s first 10 points and led by 14 at that point. <\/p>\n
The Red Storm (28-6) started by making 13 of their first 18 shots. <\/p>\n
Connecticut had committed as many turnovers (five) as St. John\u2019s missed shots and UConn\u2019s Dan Hurley was whistled for a technical foul for arguing a non-call.<\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n The Red Storm portion of the sold-out crowd exploded when Mitchell threw down an alley-oop in transition, pushing the lead to 17. <\/p>\n It was 13 at the break, as St. John\u2019s shot 50 percent from the field and turned 11 Huskies turnovers into 15 points. <\/p>\n The big three of Ejiofor, Mitchell and Hopkins combined for 25 points and 12 rebounds in the opening half.<\/p>\n UConn, meanwhile, was cold, shooting 2-for-8 from 3-point range and 36 percent from the field.<\/p>\n Dan Hurley reacts from the sideline during UConn\u2019s loss to St. John\u2019s on March 14. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n But the Huskies put together a 7-0 run early in the second half, and suddenly an 18-point lead was quickly down to 11. <\/p>\n It ballooned to a 13-2 burst after consecutive Reed baskets inside, and St. John\u2019s lead was just seven with 12:24 to go. <\/p>\n The Red Storm had missed six of seven shots, and were struggling to get quality looks. <\/p>\n Over the span of the run, 6:03, the Johnnies managed just a Hopkins follow-up after an offensive rebound.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour weekly dispatch from the No. 1 source on the Johnnies\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside St. John’s by Zach Braziller, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Out of a timeout, Hopkins hit a left elbow jumper. <\/p>\n Then Ejiofor sank a 3-pointer. Order was restored. <\/p>\n When Ejiofor blocked a Silas Demary Jr. drive, leading to Mitchell\u2019s windmill slam, it was a 13-point game again.<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s wasn\u2019t going to be denied. <\/p>\n Not at the Garden. <\/p>\n Not in Ejiofor\u2019s last college game here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zuby Ejiofor waved his hands above his head, imploring the St. John\u2019s fans to get louder. Booming \u201cLet\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[235421,4044,14601,99,14602,14603],"class_list":["post-524318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-big-east-tournament","tag-college-basketball","tag-rick-pitino","tag-sports","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-zuby-ejiofor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524318","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=524318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}