St. John’s is on the brink of claiming at least a share of the Big East regular season title.
The Red Storm managed to pull off a thrilling 72-69 victory against Georgetown, the conference’s last-place team, thanks to a spirited second-half fightback and a stroke of luck late in the game on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, narrowly avoiding a major upset.
With this dramatic win, the 18th-ranked St. John’s has boosted its record to 17-2 in conference play, putting them level with 4th-ranked UConn at the top of the standings with just one game remaining.
Georgetown’s Jeremiah Williams had a critical opportunity to even the score with just 16.6 seconds left, completing a floater while drawing a foul from Bryce Hopkins, which brought the score to 70-69.
However, Williams failed to convert the ensuing free throw. After Hopkins sank two free throws, Georgetown’s Caleb Williams missed a last-second three-point attempt as the game clock expired.
In a remarkable turnaround, St. John’s erased a 12-point deficit in the final 14 minutes, mounting a 25-9 run to secure the victory.
In his final regular season home game, Zuby Ejiofor led St. John’s with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting, seven rebounds and five assists on senior night.
And Joson Sanon erupted for 15 points off the bench, all in the second half.
“We did what championship-level teams do,” Ejiofor said.
St. John’s can now clinch a share of the Big East crown with a road win over Seton Hall in Friday night’s regular season finale. UConn closes the regular season on Saturday at Marquette.
St. John’s fell out of sole possession of first place with last week’s 72-40 loss to UConn, then rebounded Saturday with a 89-57 win over Villanova at the Garden.
The Johnnies needed a win Tuesday to keep pace with UConn, and they were heavily favored against a slumping Georgetown team that they had already defeated, 95-83, in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 31.
Georgetown entered Tuesday on a six-game losing streak and was playing without its leading scorer, KJ Lewis, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury last week.
But Georgetown took a 12-point lead with 14:08 remaining in Tuesday’s game behind a four-point possession in which Williams made a buzzer-beating jumper and Ejiofor committed a foul away from the play. Georgetown maintained possession, and Malik Mack added a lay-up that put the Hoyas up, 48-36.
Ian Jackson gave the Johnnies a jolt with a three-point play about a minute later, making it a 48-40 game and waking up a dormant Garden crowd that was looking for a reason to erupt.
The Red Storm continued their surge with a Sanon 3-pointer and a Dillon Mitchell tip-in dunk on back-to-back possessions, cutting the deficit to 50-45 with 11:43 remaining.
The Hoyas still led by five when Ejiofor corralled an offensive rebound and finished a lay-up through contact for a three-point play. After Ejiofor made his free throw, St. John’s trailed, 55-53, with 8:01 to go.
About a minute later, Ejiofor made two more free throws to tie the game, 57-57.
And St. John’s took the lead mere seconds later when Dylan Darling came away with a steal and turned it into a go-ahead transition lay-up with 6:43 left.
St. John’s didn’t trail again.
That followed a first half in which St. John’s shot just 11-of-31 (35.5%) and at one point went more than five minutes without scoring.
The Johnnies trailed, 34-26, at halftime.
But they outscored the Hoyas, 46-35, after the break, scoring 15 second-chance points in the second half.
