For a moment, it appeared that not one, but both of the Big East’s superpowers would be blindsided on Wednesday evening. Earlier that night, Creighton walked out of an incandescent Gampel Pavilion with a convincing 91-84 win over No. 5 UConn. Hundreds of miles away in Milwaukee, St. John’s was also placed on the brink of a stunning upset.
Nothing had gone right for St. John’s to open the second half. They allowed one-way traffic to the basket, tossed up awkward shots late in the shot clock, and Marquette — for all of their warts this season, could still defend like Shaka Smart teams of old — knocked the Red Storm out of their element with dizzying ball pressure. Their 44-35 halftime lead evaporated, and what would have been a stress-free scamper over a conference bottom-feeder quickly turned into a legitimate scare.
With 11:55 remaining in the second half, Nigel James cemented a 21-6 Marquette run by sticking an acrobatic reverse layup through a narrow crevice between the leaping Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell to give the Golden Eagles a 56-50 lead.
If St. John’s wanted to avoid the same fate the Huskies suffered hours ago, they needed to stick to their principles and flip the momentum as soon as possible. On cue after a well-timed Rick Pitino timeout, they righted the ship with a 18-5 run, re-taking the lead for good and surviving a late surge by Marquette to win 76-70 and secure first place in the Big East standings.
Up until James’s layup, Marquette was shooting 50% from the field and 4-of-13 from three, but St. John’s locked the Golden Eagles down and only allowed them to hit 4-of-17 and 2-of-8 from deep for the rest of the game.
A major reason for this shift for St. John’s was their man in the middle. It took some time for Zuby Ejiofor to enter a flow, only recording one point and no rebounds in the first half, but he answered the call when the Red Storm needed a spark. Ejiofor scored seven of his 10 points, took down five of his six rebounds, and made three blocks after James’s circus layup put Marquette ahead by six.
Days after getting involved in a tussle at his return game to Providence, Bryce Hopkins silenced the opposing student section’s banterous chants of “Duncan Powell” by scoring 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting and pulling down ten rebounds to record his first double-double in a Red Storm uniform. He was the aggressor in the paint all night long, making multiple physical baskets, including a baby hook over Royce Parham while drawing the foul to put St. John’s ahead by two possessions at the 8:02 mark.
Oziyah Sellers was moved out of the starting lineup in place of Joson Sanon due to a slight ankle injury, marking the first change made to the starting five since the winning streak began. However, the sharpshooter from Stanford had a comfortable shooting night off the bench, scoring 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 from three-point range.
The Red Storm extended their winning streak to 12 games and need to win their next two contests to match a program record for longest conference winning streak. Coming up for the Red Storm is a matchup with the Creighton Bluejays (14-13, 8-8 Big East) on Saturday, February 21 (12 p.m., FS1), who are looking for their second shocking victory over a ranked opponent in as many games.