St. John's gritty players from last season key victory over Butler
St. John's Lefteris Liotopoulos rises up for a layup against Butler during a Big East matchup on Jan. 6, 2026 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Credit: St. John's Athletics/Maggie Pruitt
INDIANAPOLIS — If there is something this St. John’s team has been aching for it is some of the qualities last year’s team exhibited when it won the Big East regular season and tournament championships, specifically grit and the will to win.
On Tuesday night the Red Storm got a heavy dose of those from the players who lived it and they set the tone for a Big East win the team needed badly.
It may have been more resourcefulness in the face of foul trouble than game play for St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, but he relied more on returning players than he has in any other game and their play proved central in a 84-70 victory before 6,523 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
The Quad 1 victory — the second of the season for St. John’s (10-5, 3-1) — turns the page on Saturday’s Quad 3 meltdown loss to Providence at the Garden.
As always, Zuby Ejiofor was right in the middle of it, but returners Ruben Prey and Lefteris Liotopoulos both played 18 minutes, a season high in minutes. All three played with high motors, especially in the first half, exhibiting effort and savvy that Pitino demands.
Asked if the contributions from Prey and Liotopoulos were contagious, Bryce Hopkins — who excelled in the second half after playing just four minutes because of foul trouble in the first — replied, “100%. They have been under coach’s wing and they . . . know what he expects from us and that definitely helps us.”
Ejiofor finished with 18 points and three steals in 30 minutes. Liotopoulos had 10 on 4-for-6 shooting. Prey had 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting.
But it was Hopkins who ended up delivering the goods for the Red Storm by scoring 15 of his 17 points in the second half and keying a 15-3 run to pull away in the second half. Hopkins had six points in the run and capped it by putting back his own miss for a 74-57 lead with 5:37 left to play.
Oziyah Sellers added 10 points and four assists for St. John’s.
Finley Bizjack scored 21 and Michael Ajayi added 14 points for Butler (10-6, 1-4).
Prey, a sophomore from Portugal, got the call when Hopkins got two early fouls and scored six of his points in the first half. Though he and Ejiofor are two of the team’s most physical players, they have rarely played together, but on Tuesday were a very effective tandem.
Liotopoulos, a sophomore from Greece, was Pitino’s pick ahead of Dylan Darling when Ian Jackson found early foul trouble and came off the bench to score all of his 10 points before halftime. Pitino continued to play them after the intermission.
“I wanted to play with motion and have shooters in the game,” Pitino said. “Lefty [Liotopoulos] knows how to play European basketball, which is sort of our system. Ruben knows how to play European basketball, which is our system. So those two guys give us big lifts.
“Ruben is the consummate team player,” he added. “He doesn’t complain about his minutes, but he could [start] for just about for any team in the country and, next year, he’ll get his starting role for the first time and play a lot.”
St. John’s defense after halftime, especially its full-court press, was the catalyst to taking the lead and putting the game away. The Storm forced a Butler squad that came in averaging 11.7 turnovers into 21 giveaways, including 13 in the final 20 minutes. The Storm got five Bulldog turnovers and turned them into nine points during the 15-3 run.
Pitino said that during halftime he told the Red Storm “You’re playing one-on-one defense, and we’re not a good one-on-one defensive team, so everybody’s got to get in the gaps and stop them right away.”
Then he explained, “I had to go with Lefty and Ruben because they know the defenses we play and they know the gaps. In order to stop them, you can’t be one-on-one. It’s got to be us in gaps.”
St. John’s loss to Providence was its worst overall performance of the season and wasted a 33-point, 15-rebound effort by Ejiofor.
The Storm showed a lot of good qualities in bouncing back for an important road win as it heads to Creighton for a game on Saturday.
“It shows our resilience and it shows our competitive nature to come back after losing at home and I feel like we responded really well,” Hopkins said. “It was a great team win and you know it’s going to be the start to something good.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
