St. John’s crushes Northern Iowa for statement win to start March Madness

SAN DIEGO — Forget the noise, Rick Pitino and his players said.

Forget the questionable NCAA Tournament seed and the idea of being sent out West for the first weekend.

All that mattered, St. John’s repeated several times in advance of its March Madness opener, was Friday night and Northern Iowa.

“These guys are way beyond that,” Zuby Ejiofor said. “The biggest thing is do whatever it takes to win.”

The fifth-seeded Johnnies certainly looked like a supremely focused team. Whether there was any extra internal motivation is uncertain. But the same group that was dominant throughout the Big East Tournament showed up at Viejas Arena.

St. John’s started fast for the fourth consecutive game and never took its foot off the gas in a wire-to-wire 79-53 victory over 12th-seeded Northern Iowa to advance to the second round Sunday. The Johnnies (29-6), who have won 20 of their past 21 games, will meet the winner of No. 4 Kansas/No. 13 Cal Baptist. They have won back-to-back tournament games for the first time since 1999-2000 and are within one win of the program’s first Sweet 16 berth in 27 years.

“Nobody wants to go home,” Ejiofor said. “This is one step [closer] to the bigger goal.”

Northern Iowa, with its nation-leading points-per-game defense (61.3) and methodical pace, was viewed as a potential matchup problem for St. John’s. That never materialized.

In the lead-up to the game, Pitino emphasized the importance of the 3-point line, because Northern Iowa’s pack-line defense takes away the paint.

“We’ve got to beat them at that line. We’ll beat them in the other areas, but we’ve got to beat them at that line,” Pitino told his team. “And the guys did.”

His players were listening. The Red Storm scored the game’s first 13 points, hit seven first-half 3-pointers in building a large lead and were never threatened. They finished with 10 triples, their most since hitting 12 on Jan. 10 in a blowout of Creighton.

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Ejiofor extended his memorable St. John’s career for at least one more game with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Bryce Hopkins added 13 points and six rebounds, Oziyah Sellers had 11 and Ruben Prey chipped in eight points and four rebounds off the bench. Trey Campbell had 14 points for Northern Iowa (23-13), the Missouri Valley Conference champion.

It was the Big East Tournament all over again, with St. John’s sprinting out to an early double-digit lead. It was 13-0 after only 3:07 had elapsed. Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson used three of his four timeouts in the first 12:03. By then, it was a 19-point margin and St. John’s had more made 3-pointers (six) than the Panthers had made field goals (four).

St. John’s 47 first-half points equaled a program NCAA Tournament record, set against Arkansas in 1993. It was almost the most Northern Iowa allowed all year in the opening half.

“They played a fantastic first half. The second half they held serve,” Pitino said. “But the first half was a brilliant performance on offense, brilliant performance on defense.”

Northern Iowa came out of the locker room after halftime energized, scoring eight of the first 10 points. St. John’s had three empty trips and missed seven of its first nine shots to begin the period. Still, the lead was 17 at the under-12 media timeout, and the Red Storm were well on their way to a comfortable opening-round victory.

Ejiofor was held to five points after halftime and forced shots on a few occasions. Pitino told CBS in his on-court interview that his star was “good, not great. He has greatness in him next game.”

Ejiofor agreed.

“That’s not good enough,” Ejiofor said.

Pitino responded with a laugh: “It’s about time you said that.”

All the Johnnies were smiling Friday. Their season has at least one more game left in it.