St. John’s erases 15-point second-half deficit to stun Seton Hall

Far too often, St. John’s has found itself on the wrong end of games like this.

In their five losses this season, the Red Storm have blown a lead in the second half. In three of those losses, St. John’s led by double digits at one point.

But Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Johnnies were the comeback kids.

St. John’s rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit to defeat Seton Hall, 65-60, to extend its winning streak to five.

The decisive spurt was a 20-6 run, during which St. John’s (14-5; 7-1 vs. Big East) took the lead, 55-54, on a Dillon Mitchell layup with 4:53 remaining.

It was a one-point game more than three minutes later, until Zuby Ejiofor grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws, giving St. John’s a 59-56 advantage with 1:21 left.

On the ensuing possession, Dylan Darling stole the ball from Seton Hall’s Adam Clark and took it back for a dagger layup.

Mitchell scored seven of his 17 points in the second half and finished with 11 rebounds.

The victory was Rick Pitino’s 899th career victory, tied with Bob Knight for fourth most in Division I history.

Seton Hall (14-5; 4-4 vs. Big East) led 38-32 at halftime, then opened the second half on a 9-0 run to take the lead, 47-32.

During that drought, St. John’s missed six straight shots and remained scoreless until Bryce Hopkins made a layup more than four minutes into the second half.

But soon after, the Pirates went five minutes between scoring goals. Seton Hall still led by 11 with 13:04 to play, but that’s when St. John’s started to pull away.

With less than seven minutes remaining, Mitchell made a free throw but missed the second. St. John’s then grabbed three straight offensive rebounds to maintain this possession, which ended with a Joson Sanon jumper that cut the St. John’s deficit to 53-52.

Mitchell’s layup less than two minutes later proved to be the game-winner, as St. John never trailed again. Seton Hall shot just 7 of 14 from the free throw line in the second half and also missed numerous layups.

Picked by Big East coaches to finish last in the conference, Seton Hall is one of the best stories in college basketball this season. Backed by a tireless defense, the Pirates started the season with a 14-2 record, propelling them to No. 25 in last week’s AP poll.

But Seton Hall — the worst-scoring team in the Big East — suffered back-to-back home losses to UConn and Butler last week and fell out of the latest AP rankings.

Yet the disjointed nature of Seton Hall was on full display Tuesday from the first tip.

About three minutes into the game, St. John’s star Ejiofor and Seton Hall’s Elijah Fisher tangled as they battled for a rebound, and they continued to battle for the ball as they moved out of the paint to nearly half-court.

Ejiofor and Fisher were both called for technical fouls after the tone-setting brawl.

Seton Hall got off to an unusually hot start on offense, hitting each of its first three 3-pointers and taking a 20-14 lead.

St. John’s followed with a 9-2 run, during which it scored on four straight possessions, the last of which was a Mitchell layup that gave the Red Storm their first lead, 23-22.

But that proved to be the Johnnies’ only lead of the half as undersized Seton Hall collected 12 offensive rebounds, leading to 10 second-chance points. Seton Hall outscored St. John’s, 22-14, before halftime and took a 38-32 lead into the break.

After a 9-5 start to the season, St. John’s has won five straight, including road victories at Creighton and Villanova.

Tuesday’s victory marked the latest test St. John’s has faced.