Heavy underdog Iona entered Saturday with an concept for how one can sluggish No. 22 St. John’s, and for a short time, it labored.
Dared by the Gaels to shoot 3-pointers, St. John’s bought off to an ice-cold begin at Madison Sq. Backyard, making only one area purpose within the recreation’s first seven minutes.
However St. John’s caught hearth within the second half of Saturday afternoon’s 91-64 victory — a surge that included 4 3-pointers by Oziyah Sellers.
“They made us pay,” Iona head coach Dan Geriot stated.
Sellers scored 16 of his team-high 19 factors within the second half as St. John (6-3) erupted for 55 factors after halftime in entrance of a crowd of 15,803.
The sharp-shooting Sellers went 4-of-5 on 3-pointers within the second half to complete 4-of-7 for the sport.
“I really believe he’s the best shooter in the country,” stated St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, who coached at Iona from 2020-22. “I really believe that. I’m not just propping him up. … He’s got to do more of that.”
The Purple Storm entered as 27.5-point favorites, however they made simply considered one of their first 13 photographs and began 0-for-5 on 3-pointers.
Iona led, 10-2, greater than 5 minutes into the sport. St. John’s missed 11 consecutive photographs over an early stretch that lasted greater than seven minutes.
It was an inauspicious opening for a St. John’s staff that shot simply 34% — together with 4-of-22 on 3-pointers — in its earlier recreation, a grind-it-out 63-58 victory over Ole Miss on the Backyard final weekend.
The Purple Storm lastly snapped their field-goal drought with a Zuby Ejiofor lay-up on the 12:30 mark of the primary half, they usually took the lead for good lower than two minutes later when Lefteris Liotopoulos’ 3-pointer put them up, 15-12.
Joson Sanon drilled 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions proper earlier than halftime, giving St. John’s a 36-26 lead on the break.
After which Sellers exploded within the second half, beating the Gaels with an array of 3-pointers in transition and a dagger from the highest of the important thing with 14:03 remaining after Iona had lower the deficit to 4 factors.
“Those ones are difficult because that’s beating the game plan,” Geriot stated. “Obviously, St. John’s [is a] great team, high aspirations for where they’re going, and they were able to feel that, read that game plan, and succeed against it.”
St. John’s, which entered Saturday capturing 33% on 3-pointers, completed 10-of-26 (38%) from behind the arc, together with 6-of-13 after halftime.
The second-half outburst represented a bounce again for Sellers, who totaled 11 factors and shot 2-of-10 on 3-pointers over the earlier two video games.
“Coach tells us all time to just shoot the ball, shoot the ball,” stated Sellers, a senior switch from Stanford who’s now capturing 46.3% from deep.
“Even with … my misses, it’s a chance for us to get offensive rebounds and things like that. Regardless of making or missing shots, I’m gonna continue to shoot, and I felt good tonight.”
St. John’s dedicated 17 turnovers after recording 20 in final weekend’s win over Ole Miss.
However Saturday’s recreation was the second in a row during which St. John’s, which struggled defensively to start out the season, held an opponent below 65 factors.
Ejiofor dominated on that finish with eight blocks, matching the profession excessive he set within the earlier recreation in opposition to Ole Miss. The senior ahead grew to become the primary Division I participant with back-to-back eight-block video games since Marshall’s Obinna Anochili-Killen in 2021.
Iona shot 38% from the sector, together with 5-of-19 (27%) on 3-pointers, and tried solely seven free throws.
“We did a really good job of defending the 3-point line tonight and keeping them off the foul line,” Pitino stated. “We had some difficulties with turnovers, but outside of that, we played a real good game.”
Saturday’s recreation was Pitino’s first in opposition to Iona since he left the small college in New Rochelle for the St. John’s job in March 2023.
After the win, Pitino recalled being “rejuvenated” by Iona, which employed him to his first NCAA job since he was fired from Louisville in 2017 amid a federal investigation into fraud and corruption within the sport.
Pitino was cleared by the Impartial Accountability Decision Course of (IARP) in 2022.
“Iona’s a special place with great tradition,” Pitino stated, including, “We’re gonna play this game every year that I’m the coach.”
