No. 13 St. John's back in Big East title game after 78-68 win over Seton Hall at MSG

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NEW YORK (AP) — Zuby Ejiofor scored 20 points and No. 13 St. John's beat Seton Hall 78-68 on Friday to reach the Big East Tournament title game for the second consecutive season.

Joson Sanon added 15 points off the bench for the defending champion Red Storm (27-6), who will face No. 11 seed Georgetown or sixth-ranked and second-seeded UConn on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

St. John's, outright regular-season champions each of the past two years, has never won back-to-back Big East Tournament crowns. The program has advanced to the semifinals in all three seasons under Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino after failing to do so at all from 2001-23.

Bryce Hopkins had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Johnnies, who improved to 10-1 as the top seed in this event. Dillon Mitchell provided 13 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Budd Clark paced the fourth-seeded Pirates (21-12) with 17 points and 11 assists. Seton Hall was trying to reach the final for the first time since a 74-72 loss to Villanova in 2019.

St. John's has won six straight matchups in the Hudson River rivalry, its longest streak since winning 15 in a row from 1982-88.

St. John's opened the second half with an 11-0 run to build a 19-point cushion, leaving Big East Coach of the Year Shaheen Holloway beside himself a time or two on the Seton Hall sideline.

But the gritty Pirates began causing problems with a full-court press and reeled off a 20-7 spurt. They trimmed it to 62-56 on a corner 3-pointer by AJ Staton-McCray with 4:39 left before the Red Storm stemmed the tide and sealed it from the free-throw line.

After scoring the first nine points Thursday in an 85-72 quarterfinal victory over No. 9 seed Providence, the Johnnies ran off the initial eight Friday and opened a 13-point lead late in the opening half with the help of Sanon's four-point play.

Sanon had a trio of 3-pointers and 10 points in 8 1/2 minutes by halftime, as St. John's carried a 38-30 advantage into the break. Ejiofor scored 12 first-half points and Mitchell had 10 points and five rebounds.

St. John’s split two regular-season games with UConn and swept Georgetown.

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