The drought is over. For the first time in 27 years, St. John’s is headed to the Sweet 16.

Dylan Darling delivered a dramatic, buzzer-beating lay-up to give fifth-seeded St. John’s a 67-65 win over fourth-seeded Kansas in San Diego on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Kansas had rallied back from a 14-point second-half deficit, with a pair of Darryn Peterson free throws tying the score with 14 seconds left.

That set up Darling’s instant-classic moment.

The red-hot Red Storm will next face Duke, the top overall seed in this year’s tournament, on Friday in Washington, D.C.

Facing his former team, St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor scored 18 points with nine rebounds. Bryce Hopkins added 18 points and shot 6 of 9 on 3-pointers.

The Kansas freshman phenom Peterson — a strong contender to be the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft – led all scorers with 21.

St. John’s forced 16 turnovers and shot 11 of 35 on 3-pointers.

It was St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino’s first career win over Kansas’ Bill Self in the Hall of Famers’ second-ever meeting.

St. John’s entered Sunday shooting just 33.3% on 3-pointers and averaging 21.0 attempts from deep per game. But the Johnnies made the 3-point arc a clear priority Sunday in an effort to combat Kansas’ size, led by the towering tandem of 6-9 Flory Bidunga and 6-11 Bryson Tiller.

“We probably haven’t faced anything like them since Kentucky [on Dec. 20], as far as the length, size, [and] size of the backcourt,” Pitino said ahead of the game. They’re certainly very well-coached. They’re certainly extremely talented, and it’ll be interesting to see how we combat their size.”

The 3-point approach served St. John’s well early, as the Johnnies started the game 4 of 9 from behind the arc. An Ian Jackson triple capped an 11-0 run and gave St. John’s an early 14-6 advantage.

The St. John’s defense was similarly stellar to start.

After Peterson drilled a pair of 3-pointers within the game’s first two minutes, Kansas missed 10 consecutive shots, repeatedly struggling with the Red Storm’s pressure.

Even inbounding the ball was a challenge for Kansas as it committed five turnovers in the first eight minutes.

St. John’s continued to live and die with the 3, and a nearly six-minute scoreless drought allowed Kansas to tie the game, 16-16. But the Johnnies finished the half strong, as Ruben Prey and Joson Sanon made back-to-back 3-pointers in the closing minutes.

All told, St. John’s shot 7-of-23 (30.4%) on 3-pointers in the first half, after which it led, 34-26. The 23 attempts were the most in a half by St. John’s in Pitino’s three years there.

St. John’s continued to shoot in the second half, and back-to-back 3-pointers by Jackson and Bryce Hopkins put the Red Storm up, 47-37, with 13:49 remaining.

That lead would grow to 56-42 with 8:08 to go.

But Kansas responded with a furious 19-6 run, during which Peterson delivered a 3-point play and a Bidunga scored on a tip-in that cut the Jayhawks’ deficit to 62-61 with 1:58 to go.

Hopkins answered on the other end, nailing a clutch 3-pointer to put St. John’s back up by four.

Kansas’ Tre White made it a 65-63 game with a lay-up, and after Ejiofor missed a 3-pointer, the Jayhawks had a chance to tie the game or take the lead with less than 30 seconds to go.

Peterson drew a foul on Oziyah Sellers and made both free throws to tie the game with 14.1 seconds left.

Ejiofor spent his freshman season at Kansas as a little-used reserve, but he transferred to St. John’s in 2023 after the Jayhawks landed star center Hunter Dickinson through the portal.

This is the deepest run by St. John’s since 1999, when it advanced to the Elite Eight. That team was led by Bootsy Thornton and Ron Artest.

____

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.