![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/st-john-s-red-storm-121688131.jpg\")
Bryce Hopkins (shoots over Royce Parham (13) during the first half of St. John\u2019s 76-70 road win over Marquette at Fiserv Forum on Feb. 18, 2026. Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images<\/p>\nMILWAUKEE \u2014 Saturday at Providence, St. John\u2019s was there for Bryce Hopkins in his emotional, drama-filled return to Friartown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He returned the favor four days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the 17th-ranked Johnnies struggling and star forward Zuby Ejiofor not at his best, Hopkins came through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The senior forward made big plays throughout this come-from-behind victory, notching team-highs of 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead St. John\u2019s to its 12th straight win, 76-70 over Marquette, at Fiserv Forum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt meant a lot to me to see them have my back on Saturday,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cThis brotherhood we keep on building, we love it, and it starts in practice. We just play off of each other and we love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Marquette students tried to get under Hopkins\u2019 skin, chanting \u201cDun-can, Pow-ell\u201d when he was at the free-throw line. Powell, of course, is the Providence player who was suspended three games by the Big East after starting the fight in Saturday\u2019s game with a dirty takedown of Hopkins in transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was already expecting it coming into the game. I know I was going to hear it \u2014 probably going to hear it for the rest of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t really care about it. I\u2019m just focused on my guys. We\u2019re playing for something much bigger than any narrative that people are trying to build, and that\u2019s that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hopkins scored 10 points in a game-turning 17-5 run, after St. John\u2019s had fallen behind by six. The defense turned it on after Marquette outscored the Red Storm, 21-6, to start the second half. Over an 8:01 stretch, the Golden Eagles managed just five points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that span, St. John\u2019s turned a six-point deficit into a six-point lead. With the win, they moved into first place all alone atop the Big East, after No. 5 Connecticut was upset by Creighton at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bryce Hopkins (shoots over Royce Parham (13) during the first half of St. John\u2019s 76-70 road win over Marquette at Fiserv Forum on Feb. 18, 2026. Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Marquette did get within two late, but Ejiofor sank two clutch free throws with 21.7 seconds to go and Hopkins secured the defensive rebound on the other end, and hit another two at the charity stripe. <\/p>\n
Hopkins was selected as the \u201cBig Bells\u201d award winner, given to the Red Storm player that contributes the most to a victory. He\u2019s won it in two of the last three games. <\/p>\n
After coach Rick Pitino joked that point guard Dylan Darling has \u201cballs the size of church bells,\u201d after a win over Xavier, it became a part of the post-game celebration after victories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the more prestigious awards he\u2019ll ever get in his lifetime,\u201d Pitino said jokingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oziyah Sellers scored 12 points off the bench and Ejiofor had 10 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Joson Sanon added nine and Ian Jackson had eight. Nigel James Jr. scored 25 points for Marquette and Royce Parham added 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s (21-5, 14-1) methodically built an early nine point lead and the differential was the same at halftime. But Marquette (9-18, 4-12) came out of the break hot.\u00a0<\/p>\n James fueled an 11-0 Marquette run to start the second half, as the Golden Eagles went ahead for the first time since the early going. <\/p>\n After five empty possessions to start the period, St. John\u2019s finally got on board with an Ejiofor basket \u2014 his first field goal of the game. But on the next possession, the Red Storm turned it over, an issue up to that point.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marquette and James kept coming, and when the freshman dropped in a scoop layup that hung on the rim before falling, St. John\u2019s trailed by six with 11:49 left.\u00a0<\/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 Pitino called a timeout.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen momentum swung their way, my message to the guys was, \u2018we\u2019ve been here before,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201c \u2018Don\u2019t panic, we\u2019ve been here before. We\u2019re going to have our run,\u2019 and they 100 percent didn\u2019t panic, played like a veteran team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s woke up from there, reeling off the next nine points in the span of 1:35. <\/p>\n They never trailed again. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 Saturday at Providence, St. John\u2019s was there for Bryce Hopkins in his emotional, drama-filled return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,3426,217,14182,66,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-611966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-big-east","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-marquette-golden-eagles","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116098302729783550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611966","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=611966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nigel](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/marquettes-nigel-james-jr-left-121688540.jpg\")
Nigel James Jr., left, and Zuby Ejiofor battle for a loose ball during St. John\u2019s road win over Marquette on Feb. 18, 2026, in Milwaukee. AP<\/p>\n