NEW YORK — With another championship salted away for the St. John’s men’s basketball program, Zuby Ejiofor walked slowly to the sideline with seconds remaining, tears trickling down the senior forward’s face as he lowered his 6-foot-9 frame for multiple hugs.
Moments later, in a fitting scene,Ejiofor and coach Rick Pitino climbed a ladder together to cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden.
No argument anymore about who owns the Big East Conference these days: St. John’s has toppled the University of Connecticut.
Ejiofor had seven blocks, nine rebounds and three steals to anchor a tenacious defensive performance that carried the 13th-ranked, top-seeded Red Storm to their second straight Big East tournament title Saturday night with a 72-52 blowout of sixth-ranked, second-seeded UConn.
Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins each scored 18 points for the Red Storm (28-6), who became the first team to win consecutive Big East postseason titles since Villanova took three in a row from 2017-19.
“What a beautiful moment. What a surreal moment,” Ejiofor said. “We had a target on our backs all year.”
Adding to their resurgent rise under the 73-year-old Pitino — who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 13 years ago and has quickly rebuilt St. John’s in three seasons at the helm — the Red Storm joined UConn in 1998 and 1999 as the only Big East programs to win both the regular-season and tournament crowns in back-to-back seasons.
It was the fifth Big East tourney title in school history and the first time the Red Storm have accomplished the feat in consecutive years. They are 11-1 when seeded No. 1 at MSG, one of their home courts during the regular season.
“This championship means the world to us. It means the world to our fans,” Pitino said during the postgame celebration on the court. “I’m so proud of every one of our players.”
Ejiofor was selected the tournament’s most outstanding player, his latest in a string of accolades this week that included Big East player of the year, defensive player of the pear and scholar-athlete of the year. He’s the first player to win all those awards in the same season.
Oziyah Sellers scored 14 points for St. John’s, which took two of three meetings this season between the two conference powerhouses and turned the tables after an embarrassing 72-40 loss at rival UConn on Feb. 25.
“We never mentioned revenge,” said Pitino, whose team has won six straight games and 19 of its past 20.
The dominant Red Storm never trailed in the tournament, either, and won their six games in this event by an average of 16 points the past two years — all by double digits.
In a matchup of the past two Big East tourney champions, the Huskies (29-5) were held nine points below their previous season low. They went the last 8:03 without a field goal, missing 13 straight shots while falling to 1-4 against St. John’s the last two seasons.
UConn remained tied with Georgetown for the most Big East tourney championships at eight.
“I didn’t crush them in there,” Dan Hurley, who coached the Huskies to consecutive national championships in 2023-24, said of his postgame message to the Huskies. “They’re crushed. We laid an egg. We laid an egg in something we desperately wanted to win.”
UConn still figures to be a high seed in its sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance, which will set a program record.
Banging away with Ejiofor down low in their beefy matchup of All-Big East big men, Tarris Reed Jr. scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half for UConn. Point guard Silas Demary Jr. was helped off the floor late with a left ankle injury, which could be costly heading into the 68-team chase for the national championship.
Hurley said he initially heard the injury was a very mild sprain and hopes “it’s not something that lingers.”
With their fans in a split crowd roaring at the Garden, the Red Storm ran out to a 10-0 lead, built a 17-point cushion late in the first half and went into the break with a 40-27 advantage.
It was the largest halftime deficit this season for the Huskies, who committed 11 turnovers and shot 36% from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
“All credit to St. John’s. They jumped us to start the game,” Hurley said. “St. John’s is built incredibly well to play in this conference.”
St. John’s extended the margin to 18 early in the second half before the Huskies responded with a 13-2 spurt that trimmed the gap to 49-42 with 12:34 left, revving up their own chanting fans. That was as close as they got.
Thinking his players looked tired, Pitino took a timeout and said he told them: “‘Johnnies don’t fatigue. Johnnies don’t surrender.'”
When play resumed, Hopkins hit a jumper and Ejiofor drained a 3-pointer before scoring in the post. Dylan Darling later scored the first six points of a 13-0 surge down the stretch capped by another 3 from Ejiofor, and the Johnnies won going away.
“We knew they were going to make their runs,” Ejiofor said. “But we knew we had to fight back, and that’s exactly what we did.”
It was the third time UConn and St. John’s squared off for the Big East tourney title, having split matchups in 1999 and 2000. And this marked the first time the championship game featured two of the conference’s seven charter members since the Johnnies beat the Huskies 80-70 in that 2000 game.
The hot-tempered Hurley was whistled for a technical foul 7:26 into the game after stamping his feet loudly on the sideline, apparently wanting a foul called as Demary made a reverse layup.
St. John’s scored the first eight points in all three tournament games this week and led for more than 118 of 120 minutes.
Pitino won his 16th conference tournament title, with this the fifth in the Big East after three with Louisville. He is the first Big East coach to win back-to-back crowns at two schools.
“Three straight nights, we didn’t relent at all,” Pitino said. “And that’s great going into the (NCAA) tournament.”
St. John’s is headed to consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time since making three straight from 1998-2000. It will be Pitino’s 25th appearance, coming with six schools.