He poured in a game-high and season-best 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting, including 4-for-9 on attempts from beyond the arc. It marked the third time this season, and the first since that game in Vegas against Baylor, that Sellers topped 20 points. <\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a recipe for St. John\u2019s to keep reviving its season and ensure that its recent three-game winning streak entering Saturday\u2019s 86-79 victory over Villanova<\/a> becomes sustainable, Sellers\u2019 presence as a focal point of the offense remains vital.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously I want every shot to go in, so when I see them going in early, it\u2019s definitely a good feeling, a good sign for me,\u201d Sellers said following Tuesday\u2019s win. \u201cBut even when they\u2019re not, I try to just stay aggressive. Regardless, I know it eventually will go back in.\u201d<\/p>\n Sellers didn\u2019t hesitate to take the open shots against the Golden Eagles. <\/p>\n He listened to Pitino\u2019s message \u2014 and then some. He waited on the right wing in transition and connected on a 3-pointer for his second of the night less than two minutes into the game, and he added another make from beyond the arc before the midway point of the first half. <\/p>\n Sellers found ways to produce inside the paint, too, and cut around his Marquette defender from the top of the key, collected a pass and converted a layup with just under five minutes before halftime.<\/p>\n CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n The 16 attempts marked Sellers\u2019 most of the season, and Tuesday served as his fourth consecutive game with at least 10 shots \u2014 coinciding with the Johnnies\u2019 five-game stretch after Sellers admitted that he needed to be more aggressive following their win over Harvard, when he was limited to just four points. There were the 10 attempts against Providence. <\/p>\n The 11 against both Butler and Creighton. It took time, but his role and shot volume have started to settle into place, with the Johnnies improving to 7-2 this season when Sellers reaches double digits.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought Oziyah, from beginning to end, was great,\u201d Pitino said Tuesday.<\/p>\n Pitino, though, also pointed to Sellers\u2019 assists and lack of turnovers. <\/p>\n He added a pair of assists against the Golden Eagles and has now dished out 16 while committing just one turnover during the Johnnies\u2019 six conference games, continuing a trend from last season with Stanford \u2014 when Sellers committed just 1.1 turnover per game across his average of 30.4 minutes.<\/p>\n There are plenty of other factors \u2014 the three-forward lineup thriving, the emergence of Lefteris Liotopoulos \u2014 that have contributed to the revival of the Red Storm\u2019s season.<\/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 It\u2019ll take more than one game, one return to what Pitino wants to become the normal, for Sellers to officially turn the corner in his fourth collegiate season, too. <\/p>\n He\u2019ll need to continue that as Big East play stretches into February, as the stakes become elevated in March, as, St. John\u2019s hopes, the regular season gives way to a spot in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n But this is what Pitino brought in Sellers for. <\/p>\n The Johnnies had scoring to replace from last season, the Aaron Scott and the RJ Luis Jr. production that St. John\u2019s grew to depend on. <\/p>\n And as the season crosses its midway point, they\u2019ve started to get a glimpse at the aggressiveness required to get there. Pitino\u2019s vision for Sellers has finally started to materialize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Rick Pitino had been waiting for this version of Oziyah Sellers. Had been asking \u2014 heck,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,217,1284,66,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-544209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-rick-pitino","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544209","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=544209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/st-johns-red-storm-vs-118863293.jpg\")
St. John\u2019s guard Oziyah Sellers puts up a shot during the second half of a recent game. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/st-johns-red-storm-vs-118859374.jpg\")
Oziyah Sellers drives on Arien Stevens during the fist half of St. John\u2019s blowout win over Marquette on Jan. 13, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n