Rick Pitino wanted to see a better defensive effort, and his best player led the charge.
Zuby Ejiofor made sure St. John’s was better on that end of the floor in its 63-58 win over Ole Miss at Madison Square Garden.
The senior forward set a career high with eight blocked shots, to go along with nine rebounds, three steals and a team-high 15 points.
At halftime, Ejiofor had swatted away six shots.
“How many points did he have at halftime? Two. That was the most impressive thing to me,” coach Rick Pitino said. “He didn’t let frustration stand in the way, he didn’t even think about the fact he only had two points. He didn’t let it bother him. He just kept grinding and grinding and grinding. It’s easy to coach him — very easy to coach him.”
Ejiofor became just the fourth St. John’s player to register eight blocks in a single game, joining Tariq Owens, Chris Obekpa (five times) and Sir’Dominic Pointer.
“Honestly, I didn’t know I had eight blocks until I saw the stat sheet,” Ejiofor said. “I always try to be a presence, especially on that end.”
Dylan Darling scored all seven of his points in the final four minutes, but he’s still struggling shooting the ball. Darling made only 1-of-5 shots and went 0-for-2 from 3-point range. He did make 5-of-6 free throws in crunch time.
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“Happy I could make those free throws down the stretch to help seal it,” the point guard said. “I would like to make any other shot besides a free throw. I feel like that would help the team out a lot. It’s something I’m working on.”
St. John’s snapped a seven-game losing streak to SEC opponents. The last win came over South Carolina in 2012.
The Johnnies shot a season-low 34 percent from the field and also committed 20 turnovers, their most this year.
