PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island – Heartbreak as the doorbell rang nearly a month ago, this time ecstasy.

Zuby Ejiofor has seen both ends of the spectrum. On Friday night, the junior forward beat the buzzer with a short jumper into the lane to give St. John’s a 72-70 victory over Providence at Amica Mutual Pavilion.

Ejiofor grabbed the rebound off a Devion Smith miss to give the Red Storm a 2-0 start in Big East play after they trailed by 16 points in the first half.

His clutch basket capped an ugly performance that saw St. John’s shoot 11 of 26 from the free throw line. This was the first win in front of fans in Providence since 2017.

St. John’s trailed by 13 points at halftime and was lucky not to be even further behind. It couldn’t shoot, couldn’t defend itself, and was overloaded.

The Johnnies missed 8 of 9 3-point attempts, 5 of 7 free throws and shot 35 percent from the field.

Providence couldn’t miss, starting the game with 11 of its first 18 shots. Bensley Joseph was the best player on the field, scoring 12 points, six rebounds and two assists.

The Friars were aggressive and took it to the Johnnies.

Their guards lived in the paint and created open looks from beyond the arc.

The Friars led by as many as 16 in the one-sided first half and looked poised to run St. John’s off the floor before Pitino’s team finally established some offense at the end of the stanza.

It carried over into the second half.

St. John’s quickly cut the deficit to single digits and trailed by just five after a 3-pointer from Jaiden Glover that capped an 18-8 run with 12:36 left.

It was a two-point game with 7:54 left when RJ Luis completed a three-point play and St. John’s took the lead for the first time since the start of the first half on a left-handed drive from Ejiofor.