By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIG EAST.com
 
Friday night at Madison Square Garden. Semifinals night of the BIG EAST Tournament.
 
It’s when the Garden seems to come alive more so than the tournament’s first two nights. It’s a night when the conference heavyweights come to do battle. It’s when the building just seems that much more electric. It’s also a time when the great ones take their place front and center on the Garden’s big stage. When they shine the brightest under the bright lights.
 
Friday night it was Zuby Ejiofor who shined the brightest..
 
Ejiofor was virtually unstoppable for St. John’s in its BIG EAST Tournament semifinal battle with No. 5 Marquette as he scored 23 of his game-high 33 points in the second half which helped the top-seeded Johnnies shake off a sluggish first half before rolling to a convincing 79-63 victory over the Golden Eagles. The victory was the first for the Red Storm over Marquette in seven tournament encounters and moves St. John’s into the tournament championship game for the first time since 2000.
 
Ejiofor’s 33 points were the most points scored in a BIG EAST Tournament semifinal since Kemba Walker poured in 33 for UConn back in 2011. He finished just shy of the all-time semifinals record of 35 points posted by Sherman Douglass of Syracuse in 1987.
 
“We were almost a perfect five today,” said St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, one day after giving the Johnnies’ four stars for their winning performance over Butler in the quarterfinals. “We were like a five, a five-minus tonight. We were brilliant at all phases of the game. The big dog over there was just tremendous.”
 
That big dog, you may have guessed, was Ejiofor.
 
After a rather pedestrian first half in which he managed just 10 points, a first half, mind you, that saw Marquette put the Red Storm in a rather precarious 15-point hole at one point - Ejiofor played like a man possessed in the second half.
 
Trailing 37-35 to start the second half, Ejiofor wasted little time in putting his imprint on the game. He started with an emphatic jam a minute into the half, added a put back moments later and when he sank a pair of free throws with 17:13 to play, he gave the Johnnies a 44-42 lead and they never trailed again.
 
Soon the Red Storm lead ballooned to 10 points at 55-45 courtesy of two more free throws from Ejiofor. And when Marquette staged a final comeback attempt after the Golden Eagles pulled within 57-53 with 9:50 left, St. John’s looked to their leading man to take them home and he answered the call by scoring seven points over the next 1:46 to bump the lead back to 10 at 64-54.
 
“I just want to thank my coaching staff and my teammates for putting me in the position to be successful,” Ejiofor said. “They told me to come out and be a lot more aggressive than I did last game and that’s exactly what I did. So I just want to give all the props to them.”
   
But Ejiofor wasn’t done even after the lead was safe. He tossed in another layup for a 68-56 lead with under 6:00 to play and on the next possession nearly tore the rim off with a massive dunk. It was then the pro-St. John’s Garden began to serenade their conquering hero with chants of “Zuby, Zuby.”
 
“Every coach wants to have a player like him,” Pitino said. “Selfless, just cares about the team. You get blessed in coaching him. I’ve been coaching 50 years and there are very few Zubys that come along that just think about the team. Whether he scores 33 or three, it’s all about the team. Every timeout, he’s saying something positive to the guys. We’re lucky to have him. He’s our captain.”
 
All this came after a first half that saw Marquette’s Kam Jones make an early statement that this was going to be his night to shine. Jones scored 10 of the Golden Eagles’ first 12 points and had 13 points before the 16:00 mark of the first half. St. John’s as a team has just nine at the time. But there was no panic from this Johnnies team.
 
“We knew it was going to take all 40 minutes and we knew we were just going to have to stay together through their runs and our runs and that’s what we did,” said Aaron Scott.
 
“Whether we’re down 15 or up, we stay level-headed and do whatever it takes to win,” Ejiofor added.
 
And while Ejiofor was clearly the star of this performance, there was also a great supporting cast for the Red Storm. Scott added 11 points and played superb defense, RJ Luis had 13 points with seven boards and Kadary Richmond posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
It was a performance worthy of a five-star review, but Pitino holds those accolades for MIchael Jordan-like performances. But Ejiofor’s was about as close as you could get on this night.
 
“This was a brilliant night for us,” Pitino said. “And now we’re in the championship game.”
 
The win was the third for St. John’s over Marquette this season and the way the Johnnies dismantled the Golden Eagles Friday night made a believer out of Marquette coach Shaka Smart about the  Red Stom’s NCAA chances.
 
“I think they are about as dangerous as anyone,” Smart said. “I’m not on the selection committee but their seed should be very, very high. They way they defend, it gives you a chance against anyone.”