March Madness: St. John's falls to Duke in back-and-forth Sweet 16 battle
From left: St. John's Bryce Hopkins, Zuby Ejiofor and Oziyah Sellers react during the second half against the Duke Blue Devils in the Sweet 16 of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on Friday in Washington, D.C. Credit: Getty Images/Emilee Chinn
WASHINGTON — St. John’s returned to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 on Friday night for the first time in 27 years and gave overall top seed Duke all it could handle for 40 minutes before coming up short.
In the late going, the Red Storm just couldn’t get the stops they needed or make the big plays they’d been making for months, and they lost to the Blue Devils, 80-75, in an East Regional semifinal at Capital One Arena.
The Red Storm (30-7) rode three-point shooting to a one-point halftime lead and had a run of turning turnovers into easy baskets in the second half as it grabbed a 10-point lead with 15:01 to play. But Duke (34-2) was relentless with its drives late in the game and assumed the lead in the final four minutes.
The Red Storm were in a one-possession game in the final minute and had a chance to tie the score with less than 10 seconds to play, but Dylan Darling — the hero in the second-round win over Kansas with his buzzer-beating driving layup — missed badly on a three-point attempt and St. John’s couldn’t get the rebound.
Cameron Boozer salted away the win with two free throws with 1.5 seconds left.
“We were up 10, we could not stop bully drives, bully drives . . . four, and we could not stop it, which is a credit to them,” Red Storm coach Rick Pitino said. “So it was our defense that broke down . . . We just got bullied to the basket. They do that to a lot of teams. That’s why they’re the No. 1-ranked team in the country.”
“They gave us everything tonight,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “They were incredibly ready.”
The Red Storm had the program’s best season in more than a quarter-century, but it ended with all of them red-eyed with disappointment.
“Obviously disappointed — we fell just short of the Elite Eight and our chance to go to the Final Four,” a teary Zuby Ejiofor said. “One heck of a year, but yes, I’m pretty disappointed.”
“We left it all out on the court, but I mean, the better team won tonight,” an equally teary Bryce Hopkins said. “We had some miscommunication on [defense], but this doesn’t take away from what we did this year.”
Ejiofor had 17 points and eight rebounds, Hopkins added 15 points (6-for-7 shooting) and seven rebounds, Dillon Mitchell scored 13 points and Ruben Prey had 12 on four three-pointers for St. John’s.
“We had our moments in the game,” Pitino said. “We fought hard all season. We’re all very disappointed we didn’t have a chance to win a national championship, but that’s a credit to Duke . . . They all tried their tails off to win this game. Very proud of them, each and every one of them.”
Duke shot 57% from the floor in the second half, with Isaiah Evans scoring 14 of his 25 points and Cameron Boozer 12 of his 21. Caleb Foster, who returned from March 8 foot surgery, had all of his 11 points after halftime, including four in the final 2:14.
“He had no business playing tonight — 99% of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what’s happened to him,” Scheyer said. “It was incredible the way he willed us to win.”
The Red Storm made 13 three-pointers — including Prey’s four and two apiece from Ejiofor, Hopkins and Darling — and committed only six turnovers.
“We had to win the three-point line — it was our only chance to beat them,” Pitino said. “But if you break the game down . . . it was just the drives to the basket that we could not guard.’’
Duke took 24 free throws to St. John’s eight and scored 11 more points at the line. It outrebounded the Red Storm — in part because St. John’s strategy was to score on three-pointers — by 40-27 and had 15 second-chance points.
With St. John’s down six and two minutes to play, Ejiofor drained a three-pointer to make it a one-possession game, but Foster answered with a driving layup.
The Red Storm got it back to three on Hopkins’ reverse layup, and after Boozer missed the front end of a one-and-one with 32.4 seconds left, Ejiofor made one of two free throws to make it a two-point game.
The Red Storm had to foul and Evans sank one of two with 11.2 seconds left to make it 78-75 before Darling missed the three-pointer. St. John’s was running “power,” the same play that resulted in Darling’s game-winner against Kansas.
“We didn’t necessarily want that shot, but that’s OK,” Pitino said. “He had a slight opening and he had the gumption to take it. That’s not the reason. I never look at offense as a reason you lose . . . We couldn’t guard them to the basket and that’s the reason we lost the game.”
He added: “Our guys gave a valiant effort. We believed we were going to win this game. We’re all very disappointed.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
