SAN DIEGO — Church Bells arrived at the perfect time.
Dylan Darling, the Idaho State transfer in the midst of a massive shooting slump, sent St. John’s to the Sweet 16 with a buzzer-beating, right-handed layup at the horn after the Johnnies had blown a 14-point lead.
Darling strutted after it dropped and was immediately mobbed by his teammates after clinching this dramatic 67-65, second-round victory over Kansas at Viejas Arena.
Darryn Peterson had pulled the Jayhawks even with 14.1 seconds left, and they were able to use four fouls to stall St. John’s because it was under the limit.
With 3.8 seconds left, St. John’s inbounded the ball to Darling, and he drove in for the game-winning basket. They were his only points of the game.
In mid-February, after Darling hit a game-winning 3-pointer at Xavier, Pitino joked that he had “balls the size of church bells.”
Boy, was he right.
St. John’s will meet Duke in the Sweet 16 on Friday in Washington, D.C., its first trip to that round since 1999.
Zuby Ejiofor led St. John’s with 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists, and Bryce Hopkins also had 18 points.
Ian Jackson had 10 off the bench.
Peterson scored 21 for Kansas.
The Red Storm have won 21 of their past 22 games.
For the first time in five games, St. John’s didn’t start on a big run.
The Red Storm reeled off an 11-0 run to take an early eight-point advantage.
They made three of their first four 3-point attempts, but then went ice-cold.
St. John’s went 5:45 without a point, and Kansas tied the game on the strength of a 9-0 burst.
Hopkins ended the drought with a 3-pointer that hit off the back rim and fell through.
Joson Sanon and Ruben Prey added 3s to help the Red Storm take an eight-point lead into halftime.
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Against bigger Kansas, St. John’s let it fly from deep, making 7 of 23 in the opening half.
They average 21 per game this season.
A major factor in the opening half was Bidunga being limited to 12 minutes due to two early fouls.
Defense carried the Johnnies over the first 20 minutes.
They held Kansas to 34.5 percent shooting and forced nine turnovers, which led to 12 points.
Peterson hit his first two 3-point attempts but scored only nine points in the first half on 2-for-6 shooting.
St. John’s methodically pushed the lead to 10 by the under-12 timeout as it continued to handcuff Kansas.
The Jayhawks had as many turnovers (four) as made field goals over the first 8:21 of the second half.
When Mitchell scored on back-to-back possessions, St. John’s lead had ballooned to 14.
Only 8:51 remained between the Johnnies and a Sweet 16 berth.
They didn’t know at the time how dramatic those final minutes would be.
