NEW YORK — Rick Pitino reached another milestone Monday night at the expense of his son.
It certainly wasn't easy, though. In fact, two of his toughest wins lately have come against his own flesh and blood — and nothing could make the Hall of Fame coach more proud.
Zuby Ejiofor scored six of his 25 points in overtime and No. 17 St. John's outlasted pesky Xavier 87-82 at Madison Square Garden for its 10th consecutive victory. With his 904th career win on the court, Pitino passed Roy Williams for third place in Division I history behind Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) and Jim Boeheim (1,116).
It was Pitino's second comeback victory in 17 days over his son, Richard, the first-year coach of the Musketeers. In the previous meeting, the elder Pitino earned his 900th win when the Johnnies rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second half for an 88-83 victory at Xavier.
“I hope we don’t play them in the Big East Tournament,” Rick Pitino said. "I think my son’s brilliant. I’m proud of him. I hate getting any milestone against him — but I go away tonight saying my son’s a hell of a coach. ... To say my son’s a great coach is much more pleasing to me than any number of victories.”
Rick Pitino improved to 5-1 in coaching matchups against Richard, whose lone win versus his dad came in 2022-23 when New Mexico beat Iona at home.
Fathers are 21-3 overall in such Division I games.
“In two games against them, he’s totally outcoached me, and their staff outcoached us. We could not guard them. We could not stop them in their offense. They got us in bad switches. They executed," said Rick Pitino, 73.
“All the credit goes to Richard, his staff, his players. They’ve outplayed us twice, but we just gutted it out in the final minutes to come away with a victory."
Bryce Hopkins added 19 points and nine rebounds for the Red Storm (19-5, 12-1 Big East), who won for the 15th time in 17 games and tied No. 6 UConn atop the conference standings.
St. John's was coming off a rousing win Friday night at The Garden over the rival Huskies.
“The obvious thing for all of you to say is after a big game, they weren’t ready to play. We were really ready to play — but they were great," Rick Pitino said. “Certain teams cause matchup problems for you, and this team does for us.”
Dylan Darling had 16 points off the bench for the Johnnies. Ejiofor also provided seven rebounds and five assists, including a pass to Oziyah Sellers for the breakaway dunk that sealed it with 7 seconds left in OT.
“It’s really cool when you’re playing for the best college basketball coach of all time," Darling said. "I’ve only been a part of it for 19 wins, so I won’t take too much credit, but I’m happy for him. If you were to come to practice every day, it’s not hard to see why he has so many wins.”
St. John’s went 28 for 41 (68%) at the free-throw line, its most foul shots since taking 44 against Lehigh in November 2011. A trio of Xavier players fouled out in overtime — on three straight defensive possessions.
Considering the Musketeers were only 9 of 17 at the line, Richard Pitino said it was "pretty remarkable” they even forced overtime, and he told his players they should have won the game.
Xavier committed just nine turnovers in 45 minutes against an aggressive Red Storm defense.
“We had a chance to win it. Proud of the effort. They’re great kids. Really believe in what we’re building," Richard Pitino said. "We’re obviously trying to get to the level of UConn, trying to get to the level of St. John’s. But you can’t have 28 free throws to nine and think you’re going to win the game.”
Tre Carroll, the Big East’s leading scorer, had 21 points and eight rebounds for the Musketeers (12-12, 4-9), who have lost five of six. He scored 11 in a row for Xavier in the second half and surpassed 1,000 career points.
Sellers tipped in his own miss with 16 seconds remaining in regulation to tie it at 78, and Carroll missed a wild 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
“It might have looked like we came out lacking a little bit of energy, but it wasn’t like we were taking Xavier slightly. I mean, they took us down to the buzzer at their place," Darling said. "We struggled guarding them.”
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