Players doused Rick Pitino in water and wore T-shirts commemorating their coach reaching 900 wins on Saturday after St. John’s pulled off a second straight double-digit comeback.
The rally and milestone led to a return to the Top 25 poll. The 25th-ranked Red Storm seek a seventh straight win when they host Butler on Wednesday night in New York.
St. John’s (15-5, 8-1 Big East) is playing its first game as a ranked team since it held the No. 22 slot and took a 78-66 loss to Kentucky on Dec. 20. The Red Storm hit a low point on Jan. 3 when they squandered a 13-point lead and shot 28.2% in their 77-71 home loss to Providence.
The streak began with an 84-70 win at Butler on Jan. 6. Blowouts over Creighton and Marquette followed before a seven-point win at Villanova. On Jan. 20, the Red Storm erased a 15-point deficit to earn a physical 65-60 home win over Seton Hall, but their latest win was played more at their pace.
Pitino became the fourth Division I coach with 900 career wins and is three behind Roy Williams after St. John’s overcame a 16-point deficit for an 88-83 win over Xavier, coached by his son Richard.
The Red Storm ended the game on a 33-13 run.
“I’ve said this all along to you guys all year long, how enjoyable they are,” Pitino said. “But tonight was the icing on the cake, because a lot of teams would break, down 12, down 10, and they never broke, they just stayed with it.”
While Dylan Darling did not lead St. John’s in scoring, the reserve guard scored all 11 of his points with three 3-pointers and a layup when the Red Storm went from trailing by five to holding a two-point lead.
Bryce Hopkins led the Red Storm with 18 points while Dillon Mitchell continued his production since entering the starting lineup with 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Ian Jackson finished with 16 and Zuby Ejiofor notched 13 and 11 boards for his first double-double of the winning streak and fourth overall.
Including two games in the Big East tournament, Butler (13-7, 4-5) has lost seven straight to the Red Storm since Feb. 7, 2023.
The Bulldogs were outscored 42-28 in the second half of the previous meeting and followed it up with an 89-75 setback at Xavier on Jan. 14 that gave them a four-game losing streak and prompted a players-only meeting.
Since then, Butler is on a three-game winning streak after earning an 87-76 home win over Marquette on Friday night.
Finley Bizjack has led the Bulldogs in scoring in each game during the hot streak and in five of the past six games. He scored 28 against Marquette as the Bulldogs improved to 8-1 when he gets at least 20.
“We just got tired of losing,” Bizjack said. “We’re too good of a team. We’re all too talented. We all like each other way too much to be going through a stretch like that. It’s uncharacteristic for us, so getting back to what we do and being ourselves is super important.”
Michael Ajayi had 14 points and nine boards in the first meeting with St. John’s and has at least eight rebounds in every game this season to become the Big East’s top rebounder (11.5).
–Field Level Media
