It’s been a wild college basketball Saturday. A ranked St. John’s Red Storm team walked into a hostile Amica Mutual Pavilion, got dragged into a full-on melee that left six players ejected and the game on pause for almost 20 minutes, and still walked out with a 79–69 win. This wasn’t just a dust-up. It was a gut check—and Rick Pitino’s group answered it.
NCAA Men’s College Basketball Today: St. John’s Red Storm vs. Providence Friars Brawl, Ejections (Feb. 14)
Early in the second half, with Providence clinging to a 40–39 lead, St. John’s senior forward Bryce Hopkins leaked out in transition and had a runway to the rim. Providence’s Duncan Powell chased him down and sent him crashing out of the air with a hard foul that officials later hit with a flagrant 2.
Everything snapped in a second. Hopkins popped up furious and went straight at Powell as teammates tried to hold him back, and both benches flooded under the basket in a scrum that had broadcasters talking about “elbows flying everywhere” on the TNT broadcast.
What followed was nearly 20 minutes of officials analyzing film, separating bodies, and figuring out who was going to hit the showers early, long enough that players had to warm back up before the game could even breathe again.
By the end of the review, Powell and guard Jaylin Sellers were gone for Providence, while Dillon Mitchell, Kelvin Odih, Ruben Prey, and Sadiku Ibine Ayo were tossed from the St. John’s side. That’s six ejections, a crowd losing its mind, and both teams suddenly staring at a completely different rotation than the one they walked in with.
St. John’s Red Storm Turns Chaos Into a Statement Win
Here’s where it gets interesting. You’d expect the home team, already up a point and riding the crowd’s fury, to ride that wave. Instead, the ranked Red Storm were the ones who stabilized, punched back on the scoreboard, and controlled the rest of the afternoon.
St. John’s outplayed Providence after the restart and put together the kind of composed run you’re supposed to see from a team that’s been living near the top of the league all winter, finishing off a 79–69 win.
You don’t get a moment like this without some lingering bad blood, and Hopkins was already the lightning rod before Powell ever touched him in midair. The senior forward spent the previous three seasons at Providence, barely seeing the floor across that stretch, before bailing to a Big East rival through the transfer portal and landing with St. John’s.
WATCH: All-Out Brawl in College Basketball Game Saturday