Over the last six weeks, St. John’s has proven it can win ugly. That it can overcome adversity and fight through in-game struggles.
Saturday afternoon was different. Saturday afternoon was the 17th-ranked Johnnies’ “A” game, their best performance since knocking off Connecticut 15 days ago.
This effort screamed a team capable of advancing deep into March.
St. John’s was suffocating defensively, efficient on the offensive end and showed no let-up in this thorough 81-52 beatdown of Creighton in front of 19,328 at the Garden.
The Bluejays were coming off a stunning upset of fifth-ranked UConn on Wednesday, but they may as well have started the buses early in the second half, once St. John’s ripped off a 25-4 run to build a 31-point lead.
At one point, Creighton went 8:45 without a made field goal, as the Big East-leading Red Storm extended their winning streak to 13 games ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Hartford, Conn, to take on the second-place Huskies.
The Bluejays were held to their second-lowest point total of the season, committed 19 turnovers and shot just 32 percent from the field. They didn’t have a single player reach double figures.
They had no answer for the frontcourt of Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell, who combined for 36 points, 23 rebounds and 11 assists. Dylan Darling bounced back from an off game at Marquette with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Oziyah Sellers tallied 10.
It was all St. John’s (22-5, 15-1) in the first half, a mostly dominant opening 20 minutes. It was 8-0 early, 13-2 and 42-27 at halftime.
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The Johnnies defended, made shots, were plus-nine on the glass and plus-eight in points in the paint. The lone negative was only one made 3-point shot.
Ejiofor was his typical dynamic self, tallying 13 points, while Mitchell was all over the floor in contributing four points, six rebounds and four assists, and Hopkins had nine points.
It was similar to the first meeting in Omaha, Neb., won by St. John’s by 17 points.
Creighton was put in a straitjacket, held to 37 percent shooting along with nine turnovers and that led to 12 Red Storm points.
It didn’t get better after halftime for the Bluejays. In fact, it would get much worse.
