For the first time in a quarter-century, St. John’s is headed to the Big East Tournament final.
It took an all-time performance from Zuby Ejiofor to get there.
Top-seeded St. John’s rallied from an early 15-point deficit to beat the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles, 79-63, in Friday night’s semifinal round at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s (29-4) will face the winner of UConn vs. Creighton in Saturday night’s championship game.
At the heart of Friday’s comeback was Ejiofor, who erupted for a career-high 33 points on 11-of-15 shooting and nine rebounds.
The junior forward was one of three players in the game who made the All-Big East first team, along with teammate RJ Luis Jr. and Marquette’s Kam Jones.
Ejiofor was the only one of the three not named a semifinalist for Naismith College Player of the Year, but he certainly loomed the largest in Friday’s win.
His 33 points were the most ever by a St. John’s player in a Big East Tournament game.
His excellence helped lift No. 6 St. John’s on a night Luis, the Big East Player of the Year, shot just 4-of-18 from the field for 13 points.
The win was the Red Storm’s third of the year against Marquette, whom they had just outlasted, 86-84 in overtime, in an instant-classic slugfest in last Saturday’s regular-season finale. Ejiofor capped that victory with a buzzer-beating, game-winning floater.
But the Johnnies’ storybook season appeared to be in serious jeopardy of a reality check Friday when they fell behind, 24-9, at the 12:42 mark of the opening half.
Fueling that hot start was Jones, who scored 10 points over four consecutive possessions in the game’s first four minutes.
But St. John’s came roaring back.
Aaron Scott nailed a 3-pointer. On the next possession, Luis converted an and-1 on a driving lay-up. Ejiofor added a lay-up to cap an 8-0 run.
That proved to be just the start of a larger 22-7 run by St. John’s, culminating in a Deivon Smith 3-pointer that tied the game, 31-31, with 5:11 left before halftime.
St. John’s would take its first lead just under four minutes later when another Ejiofor lay-up put the Red Storm up, 35-33.
However, Marquette took a 37-35 lead into halftime, with Jones leading all scorers to that point with 15 points.
But the second half was all St. John’s.
The Johnnies took the lead at the 16:23 mark of the second half when Luis made a lay-up, kicking off an 11-1 run.
Ejiofor scored 23 points in the second half, during which St. John’s outscored No. 25 Marquette, 44-26.
He checked out with 5.6 seconds remaining to chants of “Zuuuuu” from a sell-out crowd.
Jones finished with 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting.
St. John’s advanced to the Big East Tournament semifinal with Thursday afternoon’s 78-57 demolition of ninth-seeded Butler, a game in which the Red Storm never trailed. Marquette, meanwhile, overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat Xavier, 89-87, in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
The Johnnies are now back in the Big East Tournament final for the first time since 2000, which is the last year they won it.
