{"id":581099,"date":"2026-02-04T04:29:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/581099\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T04:29:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:29:18","slug":"no-22-st-johns-overcomes-shaky-start-to-beat-depaul-68-56-for-its-8th-straight-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/581099\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 22 St. John’s overcomes shaky start to beat DePaul 68-56 for its 8th straight win"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) Zuby Ejiofor had 16 points and nine rebounds as No. 22 St. John\u2019s beat DePaul<\/a> 68-56 on Tuesday night for its eighth straight victory.<\/p>\n

Bryce Hopkins scored 15 points, Oziyah Sellers added 13 and the Red Storm (17-5, 10-1 Big East) gave Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino his 902nd career win.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s shook off a sluggish first half before taking control in the second and withstanding a late push, sending DePaul (12-11, 4-8) to its third consecutive loss. The Red Storm improved to 6-0 in road games, the program’s best stretch since 1982-83.<\/p>\n

Layden Blocker scored 13 points for DePaul, which lost its 24th straight game against Top 25 teams. The Blue Demons have not beaten a ranked opponent since taking down then-No. 8 Xavier on Jan. 18, 2023.<\/p>\n

St. John’s<\/a> led 29-28 after an ugly first half, but the Red Storm reeled off a 16-2 run in the second that gave them a 50-37 lead.<\/p>\n

They trailed 35-34 before scoring 12 straight points, starting with a putback and two free throws by Ejiofor, who surpassed 1,000 points at St. John’s. Sellers and Ian Jackson each nailed a 3-pointer during that stretch.<\/p>\n

DePaul’s Brandon Maclin drove for a layup but Jackson made a free throw after Blue Demons coach Chris Holtmann picked up a technical, and Dillon Mitchell made one following a turnover to give St. John’s a 13-point lead with 10:11 remaining.<\/p>\n

DePaul got within 56-50 on Blocker’s fast-break layup with 3:35 left before St. John’s pulled away for good.<\/p>\n

At halftime, Rod Strickland became the fifth DePaul player to have his jersey retired, joining Mark Aguirre, Terry Cummings, Dave Corzine and George Mikan. Strickland played for the Blue Demons from 1985-88 before a long career in the NBA that began back home in New York when Pitino was the Knicks’ coach.<\/p>\n

St. John’s hosts No. 3 UConn at Madison Square Garden on Friday night in the first matchup this season between the top two teams in the Big East.<\/p>\n

DePaul visits Providence on Saturday.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-basketball<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) Zuby Ejiofor had 16 points and nine rebounds as No. 22 St. John\u2019s beat DePaul 68-56…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,18244,231,772,1544,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-581099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-depaul-blue-demons","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116010481285306598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581099","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=581099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}