St. John's erases 15-point second-half deficit to stun Seton Hall

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Jan 20, 2026

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NEW YORK — Far too often, St. John’s had been on the wrong side of games like this one.

In all five of their losses this season, the Red Storm blew a second-half lead. In three of those defeats, St. John’s led by double digits at one point.

But on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Johnnies were the comeback kids.

St. John’s rallied back from a 15-point second-half deficit to defeat Seton Hall, 65-60, and extend its season-long winning streak to five.

The decisive surge was a 20-6 run, during which St. John’s (14-5, 7-1 Big East) pulled ahead, 55-54, on a Dillon Mitchell layup with 4:53 remaining.

It remained a one-point game more than three minutes later, until Zuby Ejiofor corralled an offensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws, giving St. John’s a 59-56 advantage with 1:21 to go.

On the ensuing possession, Dylan Darling stole the ball from Seton Hall’s Adam Clark and took it back for a dagger layup.

Mitchell scored seven of his game-high 17 points in the second half and finished with 11 rebounds.

The win was Rick Pitino’s 899th career victory, tying him with Bob Knight for the fourth-most in Division I history.

Seton Hall (14-5, 4-4) led, 38-32, at halftime and then opened the second half on a 9-0 run to pull ahead, 47-32.

During that drought, St. John’s missed six consecutive shots and was held scoreless until Bryce Hopkins made a layup more than four minutes into the second half.

But shortly after that, the Pirates went five minutes between made field goals. Seton Hall was still up by 11 with 13:04 to go, but that’s when St. John’s started to chip away.

With less than seven minutes remaining, Mitchell made a free throw but missed the second. St. John’s then grabbed three consecutive offensive rebounds to continue that possession, which ended with a Joson Sanon jumper that cut the St. John’s deficit to 53-52.

Mitchell’s go-ahead layup less than two minutes later proved to be the game-winner, as St. John never trailed again. Seton Hall shot just 7 of 14 from the free-throw line in the second half and missed numerous layups as well.

Picked by the Big East coaches to finish last in the conference, Seton Hall has been among college basketball’s best stories this season. Buoyed by a tireless defense, the Pirates started the season with a 14-2 record, propelling them to No. 25 in last week’s AP poll.

But Seton Hall — the lowest-scoring team in the Big East — suffered back-to-back home losses against UConn and Butler last week and fell out of the latest AP rankings.

Still, Seton Hall’s scrappiness was on full display Tuesday from the opening tip.

About three minutes into the game, St. John’s star Ejiofor and Seton Hall’s Elijah Fisher got tangled up as they fought for a rebound, and they continued to wrestle for the ball as they shuffled from the paint to near half court.

Ejiofor and Fisher were both assessed technical fouls after the tone-setting tussle.

Seton Hall got off to an uncharacteristically hot start on offense, making each of its first three 3-pointers and jumping out to a 20-14 lead.

St. John’s followed with a 9-2 run, during which it scored on four consecutive possessions, the last of which being a Mitchell layup that gave the Red Storm their first lead, 23-22.

But that proved to be the Johnnies’ only lead of the half as undersized Seton Hall corralled 12 offensive rebounds, leading to 10 second-chance points. Seton Hall out-rebounded St. John’s, 22-14, before halftime and took a 38-32 lead into the break.

After a 9-5 start to the season, St. John’s has won five games in a row, including road victories at Creighton and Villanova.

Tuesday’s win marked the latest test that St. John’s has passed in its turnaround.