Desperately needing a signature win in non-conference play to enter into the holiday break with tons of momentum in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday afternoon, St. John’s instead played their worst half of basketball under Rick Pitino and melted down in spectacular fashion against Kentucky, intensifying the panic facing the Red Storm after a troubling start to their season.
The Johnnies started slowly in a bruising cage match of a game, which saw neither team shoot better than 36% from the field and both teams combining for 22 personal fouls, with St. John’s entering halftime with a 32-25 lead built on eleven free throws and profiting 16 points off eleven Wildcat turnovers.
St. John’s maintained control through the first four minutes of the second half after Zuby Ejiofor scored an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Johnnies a 41-33 advantage, but the wheels fell off at this point. Otega Oweh scored four straight points and triggered a 19-2 run to give the Wildcats an 11-point lead.
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After missing almost the entirety of the first half after re-aggravating his shoulder injury on his first possession played, Kentucky guard Jaland Lowe battled through the pain and helped lead the second-half rally. Lowe scored all 13 of his points in the second half and recorded one assist while virtually playing with one arm.
The Johnnies could only hope to wield a fraction of that resiliency on Saturday. Instead, they collapsed on themselves like a soggy cardboard box in a rainstorm.
In the second half, St. John’s shot 8-of-23 (34%) and went 2-of-10 from three, with those two treys coming in garbage time. After their defense held Kentucky to only 25 first-half points, the levee broke after the break, surrendering 53 second-half points to the Wildcats on 54% from the field. The front-court trio of Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins, and Dillon Mitchell was physically overmatched and outhustled by the Wildcats, who outrebounded the Johnnies, 39-28. Ruben Prey appeared like he could match Kentucky’s size in the paint, but despite leading the entire team with a plus-minus of +4, he only played 11 minutes for whatever reason.
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Saturday’s defeat might be the worst so far in a catastrophic start to a pivotal 2025-26 season for St. John’s. Coming in fifth in the preseason AP poll, the Red Storm are a mortal lock to tumble out of the rankings after going 2-4 against power-conference opponents in non-conference play, with their best victory coming against unranked Baylor. Unless they can replicate last season’s dominance in the Big East, any hope of a top-four seed in March went up in smoke this weekend.
St. John’s will have one more non-conference game before all focus shifts on the Big East season when they take on the Harvard Crimson (6-6) on Tuesday, December 23 at Carnesecca Arena (6 p.m., FS1).
