St. John’s Wins 13th Straight, Dominates Creighton 81-52

THIRTEEN STRAIGHT AND NO MERCY: ST. JOHN’S TURNS THE GARDEN INTO A LOCKED GATE AGAINST CREIGHTON 81-52

By Jason Safford | Relentless Redstorm

The scoreboard wrote what no one dared predict.

St. John’s 81. Creighton 52.

That score stood there like a verdict delivered before the outlaw ever reached the gate.

Madison Square Garden hummed, then roared, then settled into something deeper. Satisfaction. The Red Storm had just won its 13th straight game, the longest streak since the 1984–85 team made its run to the Final Four . History did not whisper. It cleared its throat.

Creighton never led. Not once. The Bluejays never tied it, never felt control, never stole a breath of momentum. St. John’s held the lead for 39 minutes and 43 seconds . That is not a game. That is ownership.

And this one mattered.

Creighton had just knocked off UConn. They walked into the Garden with a certain look. Confidence travels well in the Big East. But it does not always survive here.

St. John’s greeted them with an 8–0 punch in the opening minutes . The Garden crowd barely settled before the first Creighton timeout came at 18:18 of the first half . Dillon Mitchell ran the floor. Oziyah Sellers jumped passing lanes. Zuby Ejiofor lived at the rim. Bryce Hopkins filled space and finished with force.

The message arrived early. You will not be comfortable here.

By halftime, the Red Storm led 42–27 . Creighton shot into a maze. Every catch felt crowded. Every drive met length. Rick Pitino watched from the sideline, arms folded, eyes sharp. He has seen motion offenses like this for decades. He has taught his teams how to erase them.

Afterward, Pitino did not flinch when he said it.

“This was the best defense we played all season,” he told reporters .

Numbers backed him.

Creighton finished 17 for 53 from the field. That is 32.1 percent . From three, the Bluejays went 6 for 22, just 27.3 percent . They turned the ball over 18 times . In the second half, they went nearly nine minutes without a field goal . The Garden did not have to boo. The silence was heavy enough.

Creighton cut the lead to 44–34 early in the second half . For a moment, the building tightened. That is what good teams do. They test your nerve.

St. John’s answered with a 33–10 run that lasted more than 14 minutes . Nine different Johnnies scored during that stretch. The ball moved. The defense suffocated. Sadiku Ibine Ayo capped it with a layup that pushed the lead to 77–44 . The avalanche had arrived.

Mitchell stood at the center of it all.

He scored six points, but that number misses the point. He grabbed 10 rebounds. He handed out a career-high seven assists. He committed zero turnovers . He finished plus-24 in a game that felt even larger .

Pitino called him a “summa cum laude basketball player” . Mitchell did not argue. He explained.

“I ask for the ball,” he said. “Try to get the other guys open” .

That is how this team works now. The ball does not stick. The ego does not linger.

Hopkins delivered 15 points and 10 rebounds . Ejiofor matched him with 15 of his own and lived at the free throw line, hitting seven of eight . St. John’s outscored Creighton 40–20 in the paint and won the rebounding battle 44–30 . When Creighton tried to slip inside, red jerseys collapsed like a closing gate.

Then there was Dylan Darling.

The sophomore guard played like a spark with legs. He scored 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting . He stole passes. He attacked seams. He found Ejiofor in transition for a two-handed dunk that lifted the Garden and pushed the lead back to double digits .

“I’m just trying to stay aggressive,” Darling said. “Focus on the defensive side. The offense will take care of itself” .

That sentence tells the story of this streak.

St. John’s shot 46 percent from the field and 20 of 23 from the free throw line, an 87 percent mark . They handed out 20 assists on 29 made baskets . They did not chase threes. They did not rush. They trusted the grind.

This is not the uneven team from December. This is not a group learning how to close. February has carved them into something sharper. They defend without fouling. They rebound without panic. They run without losing shape.

The Garden feels it.

St. John’s has now won six straight at Madison Square Garden and owns a 20–2 record there over the past two seasons . Creighton is 0–6 all time against the Red Storm at this building . Some arenas host games. This one remembers them.

At 22–5 overall and 15–1 in the Big East , St. John’s sits alone at the top of the conference. Thirteen straight wins, all in league play . The streak ranks among the longest active in Division I . The old banners above the floor do not look dusty tonight. They look patient.

Handje Tamba’s late skyhook put an exclamation point on the afternoon . The bench rose. The starters smiled. Pitino walked toward the tunnel with the quiet look of a man who knows the work continues.

The scoreboard stayed frozen.

81–52.

Creighton came to the Garden with ambition. St. John’s answered with discipline.

Thirteen straight is not a dream now. It is a declaration.

And in this city, declarations echo.

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