No. 1 St. John’s Downs No. 5 Marquette to Advance to BIG EAST Tournament Championship, 79-63

Friday, March 14

New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden)

6:30 p.m.

St. John's University

29-4,18-2Big East

No. 5 Marquette

23-10,13-7Big East

Marquette

St. John's (NY)

No. 1 St. John’s Downs No. 5 Marquette to Advance to BIG EAST Tournament Championship, 79-63

3/14/2025 10:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Zuby Ejiofor set St. John’s BIG EAST Tournament scoring record with 33 points on Friday at Madison Square Garden

NEW YORK – Zuby Ejiofor engraved his name in the St. John's record book on Friday at Madison Square Garden by scoring a BIG EAST Tournament program record 33 points to help lead the Johnnies (29-4) to a 79-63 victory over Marquette (23-10) in the semifinals. The Red Storm rallied back from a 15-point first half deficit to secure a spot in the BIG EAST Championship game for the first time since 2000.

After the Golden Eagles jumped out to a 24-9 advantage at the 12:42 mark, St. John's outscored Marquette, 70-39, over the final 32-plus minutes to earn its seventh-straight victory.

Ejiofor's record-breaking 33-point explosion marked a career-high and the highest in a BIG EAST Tournament semifinal since Connecticut's Kemba Walker went for 33 on March 11, 2011. The junior shot 11-for-15 (73.3 pct) from the floor and 11-for-12 (91.7 pct) from free throw line. The big man added nine boards becoming the first Red Storm player to log 30 or more points and nine or more rebounds since Walter Berry went for 31 points and 11 boards in the 1986 NCAA Tournament Round of 64.

Kadary Richmond finished with his fifth double-double of the season, adding 12 points and game-highs of 10 rebounds and six assists. Over his last three contests, the graduate student has averaged 12.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game.

RJ Luis Jr. tallied 13 points and seven rebounds while Aaron Scott added 11 points, hitting three timely triples at The World's Most Famous Arena.

The Johnnies have only trailed by double-digits in eight games this season and they won seven of those contests. Friday's comeback from 15 points down marked St. John's fourth of the season by that margin or more, all against BIG EAST opponents.

Marquette's Kam Jones got off to a scorching start scoring 13 points in the opening 5:53 and paced the Golden Eagles with 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting.

In the opening minutes, Ejiofor finished a spinning drive at the rim and Simeon Wilcher buried a corner 3-pointer, but Jones scored 10 of the Golden Eagles' first 12 points to take a seven-point advantage into the under-16 media timeout.

The Golden Eagles buried eight of their first 12 field goal attempts, including four made 3-pointers as the lead expanded to as many as 15, 24-9. Scott answered with a triple to halt the run and start one of St. John's own. Ejiofor capped off an 8-0 scoring run with a two-handed jam that was assisted by Deivon Smith.

Richmond got a second chance and one to go at the 8:29 mark to make it a seven-point game, 29-22 at the under-8 media timeout. The Johnnies continued to apply pressure and got within one off a Richmond steal turned into a Luis made lay-up on an alley-oop from Sadiku Ibine Ayo. Following a Marquette bucket, Smith nailed a corner triple to knot the score at 31 with 5:11 left in the first half.

In the final minutes of the opening half, Ejiofor tied the game once again before giving St. John's its first lead, 35-33, with 1:27 left to play in the opening stanza. In the closing 90 seconds, the Golden Eagles tallied the four final points to carry a 37-35 edge into halftime.

As the battle continued in the latter half, Scott drained one from long-range and Ejiofor retook an advantage from the charity stripe after a flagrant one foul was assessed during the made 3-pointer. The Johnnies orchestrated a 12-3 spurt capped off by Scott's third triple of the night sending the sold-out Garden faithful into a roar and forcing a Golden Eagles timeout as St. John's edge grew to six, 51-45. The Red Storm's run ballooned to 16-3 as it took its first double-digit lead of the game, 55-45.

The Golden Eagles responded with a run of their own by scoring eight of the next 10 points to trim it to a five-point contest, 59-54. After Smith picked off a Marquette pass on the sideline, the speedy guard was off to the races dishing to Ejiofor on the break for a big time and one finish. The Garland, Texas native continued to dominate the game scoring 11 of the Johnnies' 13 points during a 13-4 scoring run that propelled the Red Storm advantage to 16, 72-56, with just under five minutes to go.

In the closing minutes of the game, Richmond delivered a crafty lay-in through traffic to give the Red Storm its largest lead of the night, 77-58, at 3:04. The Johnnies coasted the rest of the way to record its first-ever BIG EAST Tournament victory over Marquette after dropping the previous six meetings.

The Red Storm will face the winner of No. 3 UConn and No. 2 Creighton in Saturday's BIG EAST Tournament Championship game at 6:30 p.m. on FOX.