Zuby Ejiofor got his wish.
Following last month’s historic 72-40 loss to UConn, the St. John’s star left Huskies head coach Dan Hurley with a parting message.
“He muttered something like, ‘I’ll see you again, my man,’” Hurley said at the time on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
And in Saturday night’s Big East Tournament final, Ejiofor and No. 13 St. John’s avenged that defeat in the most emphatic of fashions.
St. John’s beat No. 6 UConn, 72-52, at Madison Square Garden to win its second consecutive Big East Tournament championship.
Ejiofor erupted for 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, nine rebounds, seven blocks and three steals. He was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after averaging 19.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
“We’ve had a target on our backs, and we had to battle through adversity all season,” Ejiofor said. “And these guys, they earned it.”
Bryce Hopkins added 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and five rebounds, while Dillon Mitchell contributed nine points and nine rebounds.
St. John’s forced 17 turnovers and held UConn without a field goal over the final 8:03.
This is the first time in program history that St. John’s (28-6) has won back-to-back Big East Tournament championships. Saturday’s conference-tournament title was the fifth in school history.
“There’s so much history with St. John’s, and we brought it all back,” head coach Rick Pitino said.
Saturday’s rematch was practically inevitable after the top-seeded Red Storm and second-seeded Huskies (29-5) reigned as the conference’s top dogs all season.
St. John’s won the Big East’s regular-season championship with an 18-2 record in conference play, narrowly eclipsing the Huskies’ 17-3 mark.
The rivals split their regular-season series, with St. Johns beating UConn, 81-72, at the Garden on Feb. 6 before the Huskies returned the favor with that 32-point rout in Hartford on Feb. 25.
St. John’s missed its last 24 shots in that blowout loss, going the final 17:28 without making a field goal. The 32-point margin of victory was UConn’s largest ever against St. John’s.
“I’ve said that we weren’t ourselves at all in that game,” Hopkins told the Daily News ahead of Saturday’s game. “Just coming out and having another chance to play them, it’s gonna be a different level of energy on our side.”
Indeed, Saturday’s game could not have started more differently.
St. John’s made its first three shots, beginning with a tone-setting jumper by Ejiofor on the opening possession.
The Red Storm began the game on a 10-0 run, with Oziyah Sellers scoring six of those points.
And St. John’s delivered smothering defense to match the hot offensive start. Before the Huskies made their first field goal, St. John’s forced two misses late in the shot clock; a five-second violation; and an offensive foul on star UConn center Tarris Reed Jr.
Even when the talent-laden Huskies got going offensively, steady St. John’s kept them at arm’s length.
An alley-oop dunk by Ejiofor on a lob from Hopkins gave St. John’s a 32-16 lead with 8:20 left before the half. Another alley-oop by Mitchell from Dylan Darling made it a 36-19 game about four minutes later.
St. John’s led, 40-27, at halftime after forcing 11 turnovers that turned into 15 points.
That lead would grow to 47-29 early in the second half, but the Huskies had a run in them.
After going scoreless in the first half, freshman Braylon Mullins — a potential NBA lottery pick — scored five quick points, including a 3-pointer that made it a 47-36 game with 15:57 remaining.
Three baskets by Reed then cut the UConn deficit to 49-42 with less than 13 minutes to go.
But Hopkins drilled a jumper coming out of a timeout, and after a Darling steal on the other end, Ejiofor hit a 3-pointer to boost the Red Storm’s cushion back to 12.
And with about nine minutes to go, Ejiofor delivered a huge block at the rim on Silas Demary Jr., leading to a transition windmill dunk by Mitchell to make it a 58-45 game.
Darling then scored on three straight possessions as St. John’s pulled away.
“We had to be resilient to come out with a win like this,” Ejiofor said.
After dominating with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks in the previous meeting, Reed led UConn with 17 points and seven rebounds on Saturday.
Saturday’s win completed a Big East Tournament run in which St. John’s defeated Providence, Seton Hall and UConn without trailing in any game. It opened all three games on runs of 8-0 or better.
Before last year, St. John’s had not won an outright Big East regular-season championship since 1985 or a Big East Tournament title since 2000.
The Huskies were the Big East’s undisputed heavyweight when St. John’s hired Pitino in 2023, and they won the conference’s regular-season and conference-tournament championships in 2024 — along with their second straight national championship.
But the Big East has belonged to St. John’s ever since.
This is the second year in a row the Red Storm have won both the conference’s outright regular-season and conference-tournament crowns.
They did it this year largely with a new roster, as Ejiofor was the only returning starter. Newcomers Hopkins, Mitchell, Sellers and Darling all loomed large Saturday.
St. John’s now looks to embark on a deeper NCAA Tournament run than last year, when it was a No. 2 seed but eliminated in the second round.
The Red Storm will learn their seed and first-round draw on Sunday evening.
