St. John’s men’s basketball surges past Iona with big second half

Another ugly offensive start isn’t surprising for St. John’s. Neither are the big scoring runs that make up for their early scoring droughts. It took eight minutes for the Red Storm to wake up on Saturday, then they completely overwhelmed Iona for the final thirty-two in a 91-64 victory over Iona, scoring 55 points and shooting 65.5% from the field in the second half.

The Red Storm’s nightmarish shooting struggles to open against Iona made last week’s game against Ole Miss look like a Renaissance painting, only making one of their first 13 attempts from the field and 0-of-4 from three as the Gaels sprinted out to a 10-2 start.

St. John’s began finding its composure and responded with a lengthy 15-2 run. Zuby Ejiofor broke a seven-minute-long field goal drought by scoring a layup with 12:30 remaining. Oziyah Sellers scored a layup and the and-one free throw to level the game at ten with 14:26 left in the half. Less than a minute later, Lefteris Liotopoulos got open and drilled a three to give the Red Storm the lead for good.

The Johnnies carried that momentum into the break with a 36-26 lead, making 9 of their last 14 shot attempts in the first half and holding Iona to shooting 33% from the field and 2-of-12 from three.

Iona head coach Dan Geriot deployed a matchup zone and disrupted St. John’s’ offense enough to draw the Gaels within four after a CJ Anthony triple cut the Red Storm lead to 43-39 with 14:22 left, but that was the closest they came.

St. John’s immediately responded with an 18-2 run fueled by a flurry of three-point jumpers by Oziyah Sellers to give the Red Storm a 66-46 lead with 7:40 remaining. On a day he scored a team-high 19 points (7-of-13 from the field, 4-of-7 from three), the Stanford transfer did most of his damage in that six-minute span.

Four other Johnnies scored in double figures. Ian Jackson sported a new haircut and found his scoring touch late in the second half by scoring 14 points. Bryce Hopkins logged an efficient 13 points on eight shot attempts. Joson Sanon scored all 13 of his points in the first half, sinking three of his seven long-range attempts. Dillon Mitchell came off he bench and supplied ten points.

Zuby Ejiofor was not among that group, but he still found ways to command the game without putting the ball in the net. The star center flirted with a triple-double, scoring six points, ten rebounds, and recording eight blocks for a second consecutive game — the first player in NCAA Division I men’s basketball to do so in four years. His 24 total blocks are more than 51 different teams registered all season, which include Maryland, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Ohio State, Iowa, and Villanova.

Improving to a record of 6-3, the No. 22 St. John’s men’s basketball team will have a short turnaround until they open their Big East season against the DePaul Blue Demons (8-3) on Tuesday, December 16. Tip-off from Carnesecca Arena is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the game will be streamed on Peacock.