Zuby Ejiofor didn’t leave anything to chance.
After a quiet second half, he took matters into his own hands.
Ejiofor scored on his first touch of overtime and had six of his 25 points in the extra session, as No. 17 St. John’s avoided the upset with a gritty 87-82 win over Xavier at the Garden.
Bryce Hopkins came up with two key steals in overtime and Oziyah Sellers iced it with a dunk in the final seconds.
Sellers had also forced overtime with a tip-in of his own miss to help Rick Pitino win the 904th game of his career, moving into third place on the all-time wins list.
St. John’s has won 10 straight and pulled into a first-place tie with Connecticut.
Ejiofor also had seven rebounds and five assists, Hopkins added 19 points and nine rebounds and Dylan Darling had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Tre Carroll scored 21 for Xavier, but was held scoreless without a field goal attempt in overtime.
Darling keyed a 10-2 run that gave St. John’s a three-point lead with 5:17 left.
But Darling missed two free throws with the chance to push the lead to five, and Xavier responded.
Carroll gave them the lead with 47.2 seconds left, and Sellers’ tip-in with 16.3 seconds left forced overtime.
Carroll fell in the final seconds, and his heave wasn’t close.
Predictably, the atmosphere three days after the rousing Connecticut win was not nearly the same.
The crowd, decent in size at over 16,000, was quiet and the team was flat on the defensive end.
St. John’s was a step slow, and Xavier took advantage.
The Musketeers shot 53 percent from the field in the first half and the game was tied 42-42.
St. John’s trailed by as many as five, and were led by Ejiofor’s 11 points.
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Darling had 10.
They were plus-four on the glass, plus-six in points in the paint and only committed eight turnovers.
But Xavier had a terrific first half from an offensive standpoint despite Carroll managing just four points.
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Jovan Milicevic scored 10 points off the bench in the half and the Musketeers really didn’t go through any droughts.
They also committed just three turnovers.
Carroll took over early in the second half, scoring 11 consecutive points for Xavier at one juncture.
It was a four-point deficit for St. John’s when Milicevic hit a 3-pointer on a second opportunity, forcing a Pitino timeout.
They were still down three at the under-8 media timeout, needing a big finish.
