There was no need Wednesday night for another furious second-half comeback.
Nor was there ever much doubt that No. 25 St. John’s would extend its season-long winning streak.
St. John’s imposed its will early and never looked back, cruising to a coast-to-coast 92-70 victory over Butler at Madison Square Garden for its seventh straight win.
“It took us a little while, but I think we’re finally starting to get it,” senior forward Zuby Ejiofor said. “We’re starting to understand Coach [Rick] Pitino and his system a lot better than we did to start the season, and we move on from here.”
Seven players scored at least eight points for St. John’s (16-5; 9-1 vs. Big East), which totaled 46 points in the paint and shot 56.3% from the field in one of its most dominant offensive performances of the season.
The Red Storm opened the game on a 20-6 run, scoring all 20 of those points in the paint as Ejiofor and fellow forwards Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins faced little resistance around the rim.
Three of the first six St. John’s baskets were dunks, the last of which came courtesy of Mitchell after three consecutive offensive rebounds by the Red Storm.
That kicked off another well-rounded performance by Mitchell, who scored 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting with 13 rebounds, four assists, three blocks and zero turnovers in 36 minutes.
Wednesday’s game was the seventh in a row started by Mitchell, whose return to the opening lineup has coincided with the Red Storm’s winning streak.
“He gets it done on both sides of the ball,” Ejiofor said of Mitchell. “I can’t say enough good things.”
It was the third game in a row that Mitchell scored at least 14 points and the third time in the last four that he finished with a double-double.
“It means a lot just knowing that I’m out here trying to do what I need to do and [that] the coaches see that and also the players see it,” Mitchell said. “I’m here to do whatever it takes for the team to win.”
After beginning the game 0-for-7 from beyond the arc, St. John’s made its final five 3-point attempts of the first half — including two by Ian Jackson — and took a 43-29 lead into halftime.
Ejiofor then helped St. John’s pull away in the second half, scoring 11 points after the break. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, six assists, five rebounds and three blocks in 28 minutes.
Jackson led St. John’s with 18 points, while Joson Sanon added 13 off the bench.
Similarly crucial was the Red Storm’s team defense against Butler star Finely Bizjack, who entered Wednesday as the Big East’s second-leading scorer at 17.5 points per game.
Bizjack managed only two points in the first half and finished with 11.
Wednesday’s win completed the Red Storm’s regular-season sweep of the Bulldogs (13-8; 4-6 vs. Big East), whom they previously defeated, 84-70, in Indianapolis on Jan. 6.
That win kicked off the Johnnies’ seven-game winning streak, which has followed a disappointing 9-5 start to the season.
“The most difficult thing is not navigating the [transfer] portal [or] raising money. The most difficult thing is coaching eight new players every year,” said Pitino, who had only one starter (Ejiofor) return from last year’s Big East-winning roster.
“It’s not going to be a finished product early on.”
St. John’s led Wednesday for all but 61 seconds — that’s how long it took until the game’s first basket — which was a far cry from its previous two victories.
The Red Storm overcame a 15-point second-half deficit in last week’s 65-60 win over Seton Hall at the Garden, then rallied back from a 16-point second-half deficit in Saturday’s 88-83 win at Xavier.
From start to finish Wednesday, St. John’s looked the part of a team that began the season ranked No. 5.
“Coach says it all the time: He can’t go on the court and produce, but all he can do is show us and tell us exactly what we need to work on, and it’s our jobs to go out there and execute,” Ejiofor said.
“It takes a full team commitment to be able to look yourselves in the eye and see what the issue is. … I think we’ve done a great job of coming together.”
