March 12, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Seton Hall Pirates’ guard Jacob Dar (1) grabs a rebound against Creighton Blue Jays’ guard Josh Dix (4), forward Jason Green (0), and guard Fedor Jugic (7) in the 30th minute of the second half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images NEW YORK — St. John’s grabbed five offensive rebounds to begin its first defense of its Big East Tournament title since 2000.
That hustle set the tone for a comfortable win over Providence on Thursday and perhaps foreshadowed another physical meeting with Seton Hall.
After an easy advance, the top-seeded No. 13 Red Storm will face No. 4 seed Seton Hall in the first semifinal on Friday.
The Red Storm (26-6) have never lost an 85-72 win over the Friars, advancing to the semifinals for the third straight season. St. John’s dominated the glass by a 51-30 margin, with 18 offensive rebounds and 21 more shot attempts than Providence managed.
“We played great defense tonight, especially in the first half, as good as we’ve played all year.” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said after the game that his team scored nine points in the first half and led by 21 points.
Zuby Ejiofor, the Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three blocks. He became the first player in the history of the tournament to achieve such figures in the same game.
St. John’s withstood two tough regular season challenges from the Pirates. The Red Storm won a 65-60 home win over Seton Hall on January 20, falling behind by 15 points in the second half before winning 72-65 in the rematch on March 6 in Newark, New Jersey.
Ejiofor had 21 points in the most recent meeting after having 9 points in the first meeting when the Red Storm shot 35.6%.
“It’s not easy to win on the road against one of the best defensive teams in the country,” Pitino said after last week’s game. “The message to the players is, ‘When you play a team like Seton Hall, if you want to win, your defense has to be as good as their defense.’”
Seton Hall (21-11) was swept in two games each by St. John’s and second-seeded UConn by a combined 21 points during the regular season. The Pirates advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2021 after Thursday’s 72-61 win over fifth-seeded Creighton.
“Obviously we played that a while ago,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said of the Red Storm. “We’ll have to come back and watch some film and come up with a game plan. They’re a very good team, obviously well-coached, great players, but our guys played well in both games. We’re going to do what Seton Hall does: We’re going to defend, we’re going to play hard, and what happens from there will happen from there.”
Holloway used 10 players against the Bluejays and got a big boost from Jacob Dar. The senior reserve entered the game averaging 2.4 points and then scored all of his season-high 16 points in the second half.
Dar has scored three points in 19 minutes in two meetings with St. John’s. His timely contributions on Thursday helped support the consistent performance of Adam “Budd” Clark, who collected 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Clark experienced mixed results in two meetings with the Red Storm. After scoring 3 points and going 0-for-7 in the first game, he topped the Pirates with 15 points in the March 6th game.
“We made it to the semifinals,” Clark said. “That’s why we came to the Big East.”
The Pirates relied on Dar to help with Clark vs. Creighton, as AJ Staton-McCray (12.0 ppg) had eight points on 2-for-9 shooting after shooting 4-for-17 for 11 points last week against the Red Storm.
–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media
