Zuby Ejiofor beat the buzzer with a floater to give No. 6 St. John’s an 86-84 overtime victory on the road at No. 20 Marquette on Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee, Wisc.
RJ Luis Jr. led the Red Storm (27-4, 18-2 Big East) with 28 points. Ejiofor scored 17 and led with 12 boards. Kadary Richmond recorded 10 points, 11 assists and 12 boards to post the first triple-double for St. John’s since Ron Artest in 1999.
Kam Jones led Marquette (22-9, 13-7 Big East) with 32 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on his senior day. Fellow senior David Joplin added 21 points.
A contested layup from Jones gave Marquette the lead 74-73 with 40 seconds to go. St. John’s then turned it over on the other end.
Stevie Mitchell made one of two free throws at the line, allowing Luis Jr. to tie the game at 75 with a contested layup on the other end. Ben Gold missed a potential game-winning layup for Marquette to send the game to overtime.
Chase Ross and Luis Jr. traded 3-pointers with just over a minute to play in overtime as the Red Storm took a 2-point lead. Jones later tied the game at 84 apiece with a layup.
On the other end, Luis Jr. missed a 3-pointer and Ross grabbed the board, but Kadary Richmond stole it from behind, getting Ejiofor a wide-open floater for the win as the buzzer sounded.
Marquette struggled early offensively, not scoring for over four minutes at one point, but rattled off a 17-4 run to take a 23-15 lead with eight to play in the half.
St. John’s closed out the half strong and led 36-35. Ejiofor led them with 10 points and Joplin led Marquette, who shot just 4-for-15 from deep, with 12 while Jones had 10.
Early in the second half, Jones would start to get going for Marquette. He went on a personal 5-0 run to give Marquette a 54-52 lead at the under-12 media timeout.
St. John’s completes the season sweep of Marquette, with both games being decided by six points or fewer. The teams will meet again on Friday at the Big East tournament if both win their quarterfinal games on Thursday.
–Field Level Media
