St. John’s needed a basket.
Nearly four minutes into Saturday’s game against Seton Hall, the Red Storm had missed all nine of their shots and committed three turnovers.
It was an ugly start against a lesser opponent on an afternoon No. 7 St. John’s could clinch its first outright Big East regular-season championship in 40 years, and a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden was getting restless.
Enter RJ Luis Jr.
Coming out of a timeout, Luis shook loose, received a pass from Sadiku Ibine Ayo, and exploded to the basket for a two-handed dunk, giving St. John’s its first points at the 16:17 mark in the opening half.
That turned out to be a theme in the Red Storm’s 71-61 win.
Luis stepped up with a team-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting on a day the rest of St. John’s went just 16-of-40 (40%) from the field.
His 14 points before halftime gave St. John’s a four-point advantage at the break, while his one-handed dunk with 6:43 left in the second half served as a dagger as the Red Storm finally pulled away.
As he has all season, Luis rose to the occasion as St. John’s improved to 26-4, including 17-2 in Big East play, and wrapped up the conference crown.
Luis, a junior in his second year in the program, leads St. John’s with 17.9 points per game in what’s been a breakout season.
After spending his freshman year at Massachusetts, the 6-7 guard transferred to St. John’s following head coach Rick Pitino’s hiring.
“I came here to challenge myself and to try to take my game to the next level, and obviously try to win at the highest level, which Coach Pitino knows how to do really well,” Luis said Saturday.
Luis averaged 10.9 points per game in 23 appearances, including 10 starts, as a sophomore last season, but shin splints limited his production. He underwent surgery in the offseason and has enjoyed a mostly healthy 2024-25, though a groin issue kept him out of a Feb. 19 win at DePaul.
Out the top seven scorers for St. John’s last season, Luis was the only one who returned. But he’s not the only significant returnee.
Junior forward Zuby Ejiofor is also in the midst of a breakout campaign, averaging 14.0 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds.
He has started 29 of the Red Storm’s 30 games after coming off the bench for all but one of his 33 appearances last season. Ejiofor, who spent his freshman year at Kansas, was blocked for playing time last season by Joel Soriano and averaged only 4.3 points in 11.3 minutes per game.
Ejiofor, too, delivered a strong performance in Saturday’s win, finishing with 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting and a team-high 10 rebounds. Nobody else on St. John’s scored more than 10 points.
“This is a monster of a league, so to see the progress that not only I, myself, have had individually, but the whole team from year one to year two under Coach Pitino is something that’s indescribable,” Ejiofor said.
It was fitting that Luis and Ejiofor came up big on the day St. John’s clinched the Big East title.
“Zuby and RJ came back,” Pitino said. “They’ve been stars all year, the two of them. They don’t have up-and-down games, because Zuby may not shoot the ball well but he’ll have 10 or 11 rebounds. I’m proud of those two guys.”
SCOTT WATCH
St. John’s suffered an injury scare Saturday when senior guard Aaron Scott checked out at the 17:10 mark of the first half and did not return.
But Pitino expressed optimism about Scott moving forward.
“He was limping,” Pitino said. “First transition on defense, he started limping. The trainer told me he was 70, 80%, and I found out real quickly he wasn’t 70, 80%. We had to go with [Ayo], and he did a solid job. Hopefully we’ll get [Scott] back for next week’s game.”
The 6-7 Scott made his 25th start of the season Saturday and is among the Johnnies’ best wing defenders. Ayo scored eight points and corralled five rebounds in 30 minutes in his absence.
St. John’s does not play again until next Saturday at Marquette.
