St. John’s grinds out OT win over Xavier to push win streak to 10 for historic Rick Pitino victory

Zuby Ejiofor didn’t leave anything to chance. 

After a quiet second half, he took matters into his own hands. 

Ejiofor scored on his first touch of overtime and had six of his 25 points in the extra session, as No. 17 St. John’s avoided the upset with a grind-it-out, 87-82 win over Xavier at the Garden on Monday.

Bryce Hopkins came up with two key steals in overtime and Oziyah Sellers iced it with a dunk in the final seconds.

Sellers had also forced overtime with a tip-in of his own miss to help Rick Pitino win the 904th game of his career, moving him into third place all alone on the all-time wins list. 

Bryce Hopkins of the St. John’s Red Storm slams the ball during the first half against Xavier. Robert Sabo for NY Post

St. John’s has now reeled off 10 wins in a row and has pulled into a first-place tie with Connecticut.

Ejiofor also had seven rebounds and five assists, Hopkins added 19 points and nine rebounds and Dylan Darling had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Rick Pitino reacts from the sideline during the St. John’s win against Xavier on Feb. 9. Robert Sabo for the NY Post

Tre Carroll scored 21 for Xavier, but was held scoreless with a field goal attempt in overtime. 

Darling keyed a 10-2 run that gave St. John’s a three-point lead with 5:17 left.

But Darling missed two free throws with the chance to push the lead to five, and Xavier responded.

Carroll gave them the lead with 47.2 seconds left, and a Sellers tip-in with 16.3 seconds left forced overtime.

Carroll fell in the final seconds, and his heave wasn’t close. 

Predictably, the atmosphere three days after the rousing Connecticut win was not nearly the same. The crowd, decent in size at over 16,000, was quiet and the team was flat on the defensive end.