Zuby Ejiofor leads streaking St. John's past Northern Iowa 79-53 in strong NCAA Tournament opener

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Rick Pitino is now in his sixth decade of coaching, and he claims he had never studied more film of an opponent than he did this week to prepare St. John's for Northern Iowa.

The 73-year-old coach is still putting in the effort he expects from his players, and it propelled his revitalized program to an outstanding start to the NCAA Tournament.

Zuby Ejiofor had 14 points and 11 rebounds, Bryce Hopkins added 13 points and fifth-seeded St. John's beat Northern Iowa 79-53 on Friday night for its second March Madness victory since 2000.

Oziyah Sellers scored 11 points for Pitino's gathering Red Storm (29-6), who have won 20 of 21 since early January in increasingly impressive fashion. With a fluid, balanced offensive effort against the nation's stingiest scoring defense, St. John's jumped to a huge early lead at Viejas Arena and never trailed the 12th-seeded Panthers (23-13).

“We’re playing really good basketball right now,” said Ejiofor, the Big East player of the year who also blocked four shots. “The effort is there. We’re competing on both sides of the ball. But I feel we can still take it to a whole new level.”

The New York City program resurrected by Pitino ended its 25-year NCAA Tournament victory drought last season. After rolling through the Big East tournament last week, Pitino's current team looks poised to do even better — but the Johnnies didn't take this opener for granted.

“If you allow (Northern Iowa) to control the tempo, they can beat anybody,” Pitino said. “We didn’t allow them to control tempo. We got out there off our defense, and that was the key to the game. They’re much better than this final score, so we were overly concerned.”

St. John's will return Sunday to face fourth-seeded Kansas in the East Region bracket.

Trey Campbell scored 14 points and Leon Bond III added 12 for Northern Iowa, which surprisingly snared its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016 by streaking through the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last week with four wins in four days as the sixth seed.

The Panthers' stingy defense hung in against the Big East champions' vibrant offense, but Ejiofor and the Johnnies have resembled a national title contender since shortly after the calendar flipped to 2026. Sellers hit three of their 10 3-pointers while St. John's held Northern Iowa to 3-of-14 shooting behind the arc.

“Well, that wasn’t what we anticipated, I would say,” Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. “The start of the game obviously shifted a lot of the rhythm or momentum. It just put us in a tough spot. So for me, I wish I could do that part over. ... Once we were past the first three, four minutes, it was a pretty even basketball game for a long time.”

Indeed, St. John’s made five straight shots while scoring the game’s first 13 points and taking an 18-point lead in the opening minutes. Northern Iowa missed nine of its first 10 shots and didn’t score 10 points until midway through the first half, eventually trailing 47-28 at halftime.

The Johnnies slumped slightly from the field after halftime, but their lead never dipped below 13 points.

St. John's is one win away from its first trip to the Sweet Sixteen in the 21st century. Bootsy Thornton and an exciting forward then known as Ron Artest led the Red Storm to the Elite Eight in 1999.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness