St. John's secures No. 1 seed in Big East Tournament by beating Seton Hall
St. John's Zuby Ejiofor, left, is congratulated by Bryce Hopkins during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Seton Hall on Friday, March 6, 2026, in Newark, N.J. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
NEWARK — For a second straight Big East season, St. John’s is the one.
The 18th-ranked Red Storm persevered through a tremendously physical game against Seton Hall and made a little history on Friday night with a 72-65 victory before 9,554 at Prudential Center.
The Red Storm (25-6, 18-2) won for the 16th time in their last 17 games to clinch the No. 1 seeding in next week’s Big East Tournament. They earned at least a share of the regular-season title for a second straight season, the first time that’s happened since 1984-85 and 1985-86.
“I’m real proud for St John’s [and] very proud for the players,” coach Rick Pitino said. “It was a great win and the Big East Tournament’s a lot of fun, but the regular season means the most because that’s your body of work for the entire year. Now we want to win the Big East Tournament, but it’s three games in three days.”
No. 4 Connecticut can tie the Red Storm for the regular-season title with a win over Marquette on Saturday and will be the No. 2 seed next week.
St. John’s led the entire second half, but the Pirates (20-11, 10-10) made it a white-knuckler for much of it, cutting the Red Storm’s lead to a single point three times.
Zuby Ejiofor and Oziyah Sellers keyed a late 12-2 run that gave St. John’s a 62-51 lead with 4:07 left as Sellers hit his third three-pointer of the game.
Seton Hall got it to a one-possession game — 66-63 — on A.J. Staton-McCray’s three-pointer with 46.8 seconds left. Ejiofor answered with two big free throws with 27.3 seconds left and Dillon Mitchell and Sellers sank a combined three of four free throws in the final 15 seconds.
Ejiofor was limited to 24 minutes by foul trouble but finished with 21 points, including eight in the final 6:25.
“He just took it over,” Pitino said. “He said, ‘I’ve got to score.’ We’ve said this 100 times this year in huddles — ‘no fear of failure’ — and he epitomized that tonight.”
Sellers and Bryce Hopkins each scored 11 points. Mitchell had six points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Dylan Darling played 36 scrappy minutes and finished with nine points and five assists. Ruben Prey excelled in 16 minutes filling in for Ejiofor with eight points and three rebounds.
Afterward the team celebrated with the championship trophy in the locker room and donned Big East Champion T-shirts with the St. John’s logo on them.
Ejiofor was one of the stars last season when St. John’s won its first NCAA Tournament game in 25 years. He was asked about this feat 40 years in the making and replied, “It’s why I am here.”
He added, “We did what we set out to do in the summer [when] we came in here with a goal to win the regular season, and we did that. That’s [one] step, and now we look forward to going to MSG and playing for the Big East Tournament.”
The Red Storm will play in a Big East quarterfinal at noon on Thursday at the Garden against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds.
“It’s still not over,” Pitino said of the conference tournament. “This is just the beginning.”
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.
