![\"Zuby](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/24-st-johns-red-storm-118195596.jpg\")
Zuby Ejiofor of the St. John\u2019s Red Storm and Jamier Jones of the Providence Friars fight for control of the ball during the first half on January 3, 2026 at Madison Square Garden Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\nThere were so many chances for St. John\u2019s to pull away, so many opportunities when it felt like Providence was asking to be sent home.<\/p>\n
There was the 15-3 start. Multiple 10-point leads in the second half. A five-point edge with 3:19 to go. Chances upon chances to put the hammer down, and Rick Pitino\u2019s Johnnies could not do it.<\/p>\n
They played with fire up until the end \u2014 when they got burned. Eventually, Providence pushed through the open door, sending St. John\u2019s to by far its worst loss of the season, a 77-71 setback at the Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to lose games \u2014 we shouldn\u2019t have lost today,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cThis is not last year\u2019s team. I\u2019ve said it all along. We have high hopes. But what I\u2019m noticing right now is a team that has a lot of frailties, and it showed today for the first time, that guys were just worried about their missed shots rather than being meticulous about scouting. We did some things from a scouting standpoint we haven\u2019t done all year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Providence, which entered the day 1-6 against high-major opponents, closed on a 14-3 run as St. John\u2019s wasted a 33-point, 15-rebound effort from Zuby Ejiofor. Red Storm players other than Ejiofor shot 12-for-55 from the field, highlighted by the starting backcourt of Ian Jackson, Joson Sanon and Oziyah Sellers shooting just 5-for-30. Against his former team, Bryce Hopkins shot 3-for-13, but the defensive end is what upset Pitino the most afterward.<\/p>\n
Providence scored 14 points in the final 2:55, starting with Stefan Vaaks\u2019 4-point play. There was a missed defensive rebound that led to another Vaaks 3-pointer a few possessions later that gave Providence the lead for good.<\/p>\n
Zuby Ejiofor of the St. John\u2019s Red Storm and Jamier Jones of the Providence Friars fight for control of the ball during the first half on January 3, 2026 at Madison Square Garden Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I kept telling them is defense is going to win this game, and we did everything wrong defensively with the game on the line,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t one person. It was everybody making mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur veterans did not make good defensive plays down the stretch. Can\u2019t foul a 3-point shooter \u2014 that\u2019s insanity \u2014 and he did foul him. You can\u2019t not block out in a two-point game. You can\u2019t get beat over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Really, the game turned a few minutes earlier. St. John\u2019s (9-5, 2-1) had the ball up 10 when Sanon missed a layup. Hopkins couldn\u2019t convert on two follows. Providence (8-6, 1-2) responded by scoring 11 of the next 13 points.<\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n Pitino called it St. John\u2019s worst offensive game of the year. The Red Storm shot 28.2 percent from the field, missed 13 free throws and were outscored in the paint by 18. They were 6-for-22 on layups and had just five points in transition.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just lost our confidence when we kept missing, then they just wanted to feed Zuby the ball almost every time down the court because they lost their confidence,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cIt was just a one-man show tonight \u2014 only one guy had it.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour weekly dispatch from the No. 1 source on the Johnnies\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside St. John’s by Zach Braziller, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s came out red-hot, ripping off the game\u2019s first 13 points. The 3-pointers were falling early \u2014 Ejiofor hit his first three tries.<\/p>\n It felt like the rout was on. But Providence responded with an extended 22-9 run to stabilize the game. On a few occasions in the second half, St. John\u2019s built the lead to 10 but could never extend it. In the end, it followed a season-long pattern of blowing leads. For the third time this year, the Johnnies lost a game they led by double figures. It also marked the fourth defeat in which they led in the final 10 minutes. They also fell to 1-3 in games decided by single digits.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I say back to the wall, it\u2019s because our record is not good,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cWe lost at home. So it\u2019s not a good situation, but we have to dig out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were so many chances for St. John\u2019s to pull away, so many opportunities when it felt like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,3426,217,231,772,1544,11970,1284,66,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-515841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-big-east","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-providence-friars","15":"tag-rick-pitino","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115836298711384801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/24-st-johns-red-storm-118195597.jpg\")
A scuffle breaks out between Zuby Ejioforof the St. John\u2019s Red Storm and Jamier Jones of the Providence Friars after a fight for control of the ball Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n