St. John’s dealt first loss on Baylor’s double-OT buzzer beater

NASSAU, Bahamas – St. John’s played arguably its best 20 minutes of the season in the first half of Thursday night’s game against No. 13 Baylor in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship semifinal. Another half and then two overtimes later, the Red Storm were slapped with one of their most gut-wrenching losses in recent memory.

Zuby Ejiofor missed a pair of free throws with four seconds left in double overtime, allowing Baylor’s Jeremy Roach to sink a buzzer-beating three-pointer for a 99-98 win.

Ejiofor scored 22 points to go with 10 rebounds and five blocked shots, and Aaron Scott added 20 points, including a key three-pointer in double overtime.

The Red Storm (4-1) hit 14 shots from three-point range in its bid to win a matchup of ranked teams for the first time since 2015.

Instead, it will play in Friday’s consolation game against the loser of Thursday’s late game between No. 11 Tennessee and Virginia.

What was anticipated to be St. John’s stiffest test of this young season proved to be exactly that.

Scott hit five three-pointers, including three in the final 7:48 of regulation.  

Led by Norchad Omier’s 24 points and 10 rebounds and 20 points from Roach, the Bears (4-1) erased the Red Storm’s 18-point first-half advantage, taking their first lead on a jumper by Jayden Nunn with 2:41 to play.

Kadary Richmond’s jumper in the paint with seven seconds left tied the score at 77 and sent the game to overtime.

Richmond hit a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left in the first extra period to send the game into a second. He finished with 14 points and seven assists.  

The Red Storm, who stepped up a notch in competition during Sunday’s win over New Mexico, jumped another level Thursday night in the Caribbean, the team’s first appearance in the Bahamas since the 2021 Battle 4 Atlantis.

St. John’s built a 44-30 lead at halftime, thanks to disruptive and dominating defense and a three-point onslaught.

Baylor got going in the second half, hitting 10 three-pointers after the break, including three by former Long Island Lutheran star Jalen Celestine. VJ Edgecombe, a two-time Newsday Player of the Year out of LuHi, had 10 points and four rebounds.