Proud dad Rick Pitino gets another big, hard-fought win against his “brilliant” son

NEW YORK (AP) — Rick Pitino reached another milestone Monday night at his son’s expense.

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 prouder.

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Zuby Ejiofor scored six of his 25 points in overtime and No. 17 St. John’s rolled past pesky Xavier 87-82 at Madison Square Garden for its 10th straight win. With his 904th career win on the field, 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 win in 17 days against his son, Richard, the Musketeers’ first-year coach. In the previous meeting, the elder Pitino earned his 900th win when the Johnnies rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to win 88-83 against Xavier.

“I hope we don’t play them in the Big East Tournament,” Rick Pitino said. “I think my son is brilliant. I’m proud of him. I hate to reach any milestone against him, but I’m walking away tonight saying my son is a great coach. … Saying my son is a great coach is much more pleasing to me than any number of wins.”

Rick Pitino improved to 5-1 in coaching matches against Richard, whose only win against his father came in 2022-23 when New Mexico beat Iona at home.

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The Fathers are 21-3 overall in these Division I games.

“In two games against them, they completely outplayed me, and their staff outworked us. We couldn’t guard them. We couldn’t stop them in their offense. They made us make bad switches. They executed,” Rick Pitino, 73, said.

“All credit goes to Richard, his staff, his players. They beat us twice, but in the last few minutes we won.”

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.

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St. John’s was coming off a thrilling win Friday night at The Garden over the rival Huskies.

“The most obvious thing to say for all of you is that after a big game, they weren’t ready to play. We were really ready to play, but they were great,” Rick Pitino said. “Some teams give you matchup problems, and this team does that for us.”

Dylan Darling had 16 points off the bench for the Johnnies. Ejiofor also dished out seven rebounds and five assists, including a pass to Oziyah Sellers for the breakaway dunk that sealed the deal with 7 seconds left in OT.

“It feels really good when you play for the best college basketball coach of all time,” Darling said. “I was only in the league for 19 wins, so I won’t take too much credit, but I’m happy for him. If you came to practice every day, it’s not hard to see why he has so many wins.”

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St. John’s went 28 of 41 (68%) at the free throw line, its most fouled shots since making 44 against Lehigh in November 2011. A trio of Xavier players were fouled in overtime — on three consecutive defensive possessions.

Considering the Musketeers were just 9 of 17 at the line, Richard Pitino said it was “pretty remarkable” that they even forced overtime, and 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 guys. We really believe in what we’re building,” Richard Pitino said. “Obviously we’re 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 against nine and think you’re going to win the game.”

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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 straight goals for Xavier in the second half and surpassed 1,000 career points.

Sellers reversed his 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 seem like we came out without some energy, but it’s not like we were taking Xavier lightly. I mean, they took us to their doorbell,” Darling said. “We struggled to protect them.”

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