WASHINGTON — Zuby Ejiofor called on his teammates to pick up their game, but he did more than just speak up.
The tri-captain led with his actions as well.
Ejiofor kept St. John’s afloat early when it couldn’t muster many stops, and was dominant throughout in an encouraging 95-83 victory over Georgetown in the nation’s capital on New Year’s Eve.
“I always just pride myself on being a leader for the rest of the guys,” Ejiofor said. “Obviously, they’re coming in from different programs, and they trust me — my teammates, my coaching staff. I want to thank them all for just believing in me and trusting that I can go out there and perform at the level that I did tonight.”
If not for foul trouble, Ejiofor may have notched his first career triple-double. Instead, the Big East preseason player of the year settled for 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two steals as the Johnnies cruised to their first win on New Year’s Eve since 1960.
They had been 0-10 on the night since 2008, including a crushing loss to Creighton a year ago.
Ejiofor’s 25 points were his second-most this season and his first 20-point outing since Nov. 26. He owned Georgetown big man Julius Halaifonua, who went scoreless in 12 minutes.
“The biggest adjustment we made and I had a long heart-to-heart talk with the whole team, was [I told them], ‘Zuby is not playing as well as he did last year, and I’m going to tell you why, because last year’s team got him the ball,’” coach Rick Pitino said. “ ‘Zuby’s better than he was last year, and you’re not getting him the ball.’ We started getting him the ball in practice and it just freed up so many of our shooters. I think they learned the most valuable lesson: When you feed Zuby, great things happen. Not only does he score, but he’s willing to give it up as well.”
Georgetown couldn’t handle Ejiofor, and it led to open looks from the 3-point line.
St. John’s took advantage. Oziyah Sellers snapped out of a recent scoring slump with 16 points and four 3-pointers as the Johnnies sank a season-high 15 triples in 27 attempts.
Ian Jackson (14), Joson Sanon (13) and Dylan Darling (11) also scored in double figures. Bryce Hopkins didn’t have it going offensively, but got it done elsewhere by tallying 10 rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
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Hopkins keyed a late 21-9 first-half run that helped St. John’s turn a seven-point deficit into a five-point lead at halftime after a sluggish start defensively. Georgetown poured in 38 points over the first 13:19.
The rest of the first half, though, the Red Storm defended well. The result was limiting the Hoyas to nine points over the final 6:41.
St. John’s (9-4, 2-0) now owns 10 straight wins over its rival after shooting an even 50 percent from the field and piling up 23 second-chance points.
KJ Lewis scored 27 points for Georgetown (9-5, 1-2), which committed 12 turnovers, three over its season average.
The Johnnies will now head into the new year with some momentum. Ejiofor wouldn’t call this effort a breakthrough, but after saying earlier in the week there had to be a switch now that conference play had arrived, the St. John’s leader felt it was a positive night the Red Storm could build on.
“Time will tell. I think we made a step up for sure,” Ejiofor said. “It’s not easy going on the road getting a good victory. We did a lot of things right, we did a lot of things we can definitely get better at.”
