SAN DIEGO — Forget the noise, Rick Pitino and his players said.
Forget the questionable NCAA Tournament seed and the idea of being sent out West for the first weekend.
All that mattered, St. John’s repeated several times in advance of its March Madness opener, was Friday night and Northern Iowa.
The fifth-seeded Johnnies certainly looked like a focused team.
Whether there was any extra motivation is uncertain.
But the same group that was dominant throughout the Big East Tournament showed up at Viejas Arena
St. John’s started fast for the fourth consecutive game and never took its foot off the gas in a wire-to-wire 79-53 victory over 12th-seeded Northern Iowa to advance to the second round Sunday.
The Johnnies (29-6), who have won 20 of their past 21 games, will meet the winner of No. 4 Kansas/No. 13 Cal Baptist.
They have won back-to-back opening-round tournament games for the first time since 1999-2000.
Northern Iowa, with its nation-leading points per game defense and methodical pace, was viewed as a potential matchup problem for St. John’s.
That never materialized.
The Red Storm scored the game’s first 13 points, hit seven first-half 3-pointers in building a large lead and were never threatened.
Zuby Ejiofor extended his memorable St. John’s career for at least one more game with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
Bryce Hopkins added 13 points and six rebounds, Oziyah Sellers had 11 and Ruben Prey chipped in eight points and four rebounds off the bench.
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Trey Campbell had 14 points for Northern Iowa, the Missouri Valley Conference champion.
It was the Big East Tournament all over again, St. John’s sprinting out to an early double-digit lead.
It was 13-0 after only 3:07 had elapsed.
Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson used three of his four timeouts in the first 12:03.
By then, it was a 19-point margin and St. John’s had made more 3-pointers (six) than the Panthers had made field goals (four).
Northern Iowa dared the Johnnies to shoot from the perimeter, and they obliged, shooting 7-for-12 from distance, three from Sellers.
It appeared that the Panthers were gaining momentum midway through the first half, when they strung together a 7-1 burst to pull within 13.
But St. John’s scored the game’s next seven points to push the lead to 20.
The first half was actually even in points in the paint, both teams producing 16, and St. John’s didn’t have any points in transition.
Where the Red Storm built their lead was the 3-point line.
They were plus-15 in that category and took a 47-28 edge into the break.
Hopkins and Sellers led the way with 11 points apiece, and Ejiofor added nine.
The 47 points equaled a St. John’s NCAA Tournament record for most in the first half, previously set against Arkansas in 1993.
Northern Iowa came out of the locker room after halftime energized, scoring eight of the second half’s first 10 points.
St. John’s had three empty trips and missed seven of its first nine shots to begin the period.
Still, the lead was 17 at the under-12 media timeout, and the Red Storm were well on their way to a comfortable opening-round victory.
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