MILWAUKEE – Saturday in Providence, St. John’s had Bryce Hopkins back in his emotional return to Friartown.
Four days later he returned the favor.
While 17th-ranked Johnnies struggled and Zuby Ejiofor himself did not, Hopkins came through.
The senior forward had team-highs of 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead St. John’s to its 12th straight win, 76-70 over Marquette, at Fiserv Forum.
Hopkins scored 10 points in a game-turning 17-5 run after St. John’s fell behind by six. The defense turned it on after Marquette outscored the Red Storm 21-6 to start the second half. Over the span of 8:01, the Golden Eagles managed just five points.
They were outscored by St. John’s by 12 in the final 11:55, similar to the Red Storm’s win over Providence on Saturday.
During that period, St. John’s turned a six-point deficit into a six-point lead. With the win, they moved all alone into first place atop the Big East after No. 5 Connecticut was upset at home by Creighton.
Marquette came within two seconds of late, but Ejiofor sank two clutch free throws with 21.7 seconds left and Hopkins secured the defensive rebound at the other end, hitting another two at the charity stripe.
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 24 points for Marquette and Royce Parham added 13.
St. John’s (21-5, 14-1) methodically built a nine-point lead early and the gap was the same at halftime. Entering the game having shot 27.3 percent from 3-point range in their last four games, the Johnnies went from deep in the first half and shot 6-for-14.
They also shot a blistering 54.8 percent from the field.
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A high number of turnovers, seven, kept Marquette somewhat close. Hopkins was the best Johnnie, with team highs of 11 points and seven rebounds. Foul troubles limited Mitchell and Darling to a combined 17 minutes, with neither player scoring. Ejiofor was quiet and only scored one point.
His backup, Ruben Prey, produced four points and two rebounds in extended action.
The bench was St. John’s biggest advantage, leading 21-9. Lefteris Liotopoulos scored seven points in four minutes to give the offense a jolt.
James sparked an 11-0 Marquette run to start the second half as the Golden Eagles took the lead for the first time since the early start.
After five empty possessions to start the period, St. John’s finally got on the board with an Ejiofor basket – its first field goal of the game. But on the next possession, the Red Storm turned things around, a problem up until that point.
Marquette and James kept coming, and when the freshman made a first down, St. John’s was up six with 11:49 to go. The Red Storm were outscored 21-6 in the second half and nothing was going right.
Pitino called a timeout. St. John’s woke up and scored the next nine points in a span of 1:35. They never fell behind again.
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