NEW YORK — St. John’s is one win away from its second consecutive Big East Tournament championship.

Led by an overpowering frontcourt, top-seeded St. John’s outlasted Seton Hall, 78-68, in Friday night’s hard-fought semifinal at Madison Square Garden.

It didn’t come easily, as the scrappy Pirates turned a 19-point second-half deficit into a six-point game with less than five minutes remaining.

But St. John’s (27-6, 18-2 Big East) held on to advance to Saturday night’s Big East Tournament final, where it will face the winner of Friday’s late game between UConn and Georgetown.

Facing the fourth-seeded Pirates for the second time in a week, St. John’s imposed its will against Seton Hall’s conference-best defense, scoring 40 points in the paint and totaling 18 dunks and layups.

Senior forward/center Zuby Ejiofor led the way with 20 points and five rebounds, while do-it-all Dillon Mitchell added 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Bryce Hopkins contributed 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists and went 6 of 6 on free throws down the stretch.

It was the Johnnies’ third win of the year over the Pirates, whom they swept in the regular season. Both of the previous two games were close, as St. John’s won them by a combined 12 points — including a 72-65 victory last week in Newark to clinch a Big East regular-season championship.

Seton Hall (21-12, 10-10) entered Friday squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, knowing that a win over No. 13 St. John’s would bolster its résumé for the Big Dance.

But St. John’s looked like the hungrier team early in Friday’s rematch, opening the game on an 8-0 run and scoring on its first five possessions, all on layups or dunks.

Seton Hall had no match for the size of the Red Storm, whose first 20 points all came in the paint — with Ejiofor scoring 10 of them.

The Pirates survived the Red Storm’s initial punch and only trailed 22-18 with about nine minutes left before halftime.

But the Red Storm’s Joson Sanon caught fire from there, drilling three 3-pointers — and drawing a foul on the last one for a four-point play — in a three-minute span.

St. John’s took a 38-30 lead into the break.

The Red Storm then erupted with an 11-0 run out of halftime, with Hopkins scoring two quick baskets and Dylan Darling sinking a stepback 3-pointer. Oziyah Sellers capped that surge with a layup, making it a 49-30 game.

The Johnnies’ lead grew to 55-36, but Seton Hall responded with a 20-7 run, during which it forced four turnovers.

Seton Hall’s AJ Staton-McCray nailed a 3-pointer with 4:41 to go, making it a 62-56 game.

But Ejiofor answered on the other end with a lay-in, kicking off a 7-0 run for the Red Storm.

Sanon finished with 15 points off the bench.

St. John’s is yet to trail in this Big East Tournament, having also delivered a wire-to-wire victory over ninth-seeded Providence, 85-72, in Thursday afternoon’s quarterfinal game.

Last year’s Big East Tournament championship was the Red Storm’s first in a quarter-century.

With a win Saturday, St. John’s would win the back-to-back Big East Tournament titles for the first time in school history.

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.