SAN DIEGO — Dylan Darling’s first points of East Region No. 5 seed St. John’s 67-65, second-round NCAA Tournament win over fourth-seeded Kansas on Sunday came as the buzzer sounded, sending the Red Storm to their first Sweet 16 since 1999.
St. John’s (30-6) never trailed in the second half and led by as many as 14 points before the Jayhawks (24-11), behind Darryn Peterson’s 21-point effort, rallied to force a 65-65 tie.
Peterson sank a pair of free throws with 13 seconds remaining and Kansas — having been called for only two personal fouls in the second half — disrupted the Red Storm’s attempts to run a final play with intentional whistles.
But after exhausting its fourth straight foul near midcourt and with less than four seconds remaining, the Jayhawks defense broke down as Darling attacked the middle of the floor of the inbounds pass.
Zero-for-four from the floor before the buzzer-beating layup, Darling dribbled through a seam and laid the decisive basket off the glass to thunderous cheers from the Viejas Arena audience.
Both offenses struggled to establish much rhythm throughout Sunday’s contest, with St. John’s scoring 14.5 points fewer than its season-long average of 81.5 per game, and Kansas finishing with 10.4 points fewer than its output.
The Red Storm shot just 25 of 69 (36.2%) from the floor, while the Jayhawks went 24 of 54 (44.4%). One difference for St. John’s was its 3-point shooting — specifically, Bryce Hopkins’ 3-point shooting.
Hopkins scored a team-high 18 points, all on 6-of-9 shooting from long range. The rest of the Red Storm went 5 of 26 from deep.
Peterson shot 3 of 8 from beyond the arc for Kansas, but the rest of the Kansas lineup combined for just two triples.
Former Jayhawk Zuby Ejiofor matched Hopkins’ team-high with 18 points and matched the game-high with nine rebounds. Ejiofor delivered some crucial plays in the final five minutes, including scoring off of an offensive rebound and taking a steal from Peterson the other way for a bucket on the very next possession.
With Sunday’s victory, St. John’s reached 30 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons.
–Kyle Kensing, Field Level Media
