St. John's forward Dillon Mitchell (1) blocks a shot from Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. (14) during the first half on Sunday, March 22, 2026 at Viejas Arena in San Diego. Photo by Nick Krug

SAN DIEGO — On a day when it committed 16 sloppy turnovers and let modest but unspectacular 3-point shooting team St. John’s convert 11 3s on a season-high 35 attempts, Kansas still found a way to give itself a chance in the final minutes.

Darryn Peterson evened the score with two free throws in the final minute after KU had trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half. But Dylan Darling of St. John’s, previously scoreless on the day, drove in for the game-winning layup at the buzzer, earning the Red Storm a 67-65 win.

Zuby Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins of St. John’s scored 18 points each. Peterson tallied 21 on 5-for-15 shooting in likely his final collegiate game, while Melvin Council Jr. scored 15 and Flory Bidunga added 12.

KU finishes its season at 24-11 with the crushing loss, failing to advance to the second weekend for the fourth straight year.

Hopkins of St. John’s and Peterson of KU each knocked down two early 3s, but the Johnnies, who entered Sunday averaging seven 3s per game, got a third in the first three minutes from Oziyah Sellers and after a live-ball turnover by Council took an 11-6 lead into the first media timeout.

Bidunga committed two fouls — one vying for a rebound and one on a reach-in — in seven seconds and Ian Jackson added another 3 after two offensive rebounds. KU then had to call a timeout because of an inability to inbound the ball, something that plagued the Jayhawks early.

A 1-for-2 trip to the free-throw line from Paul Mbiya ended the Johnnies’ run of 11 straight points. The Jayhawks got their first field goal from a non-Peterson player at the 10:19 mark on a fast-break dunk by Elmarko Jackson, after he had missed a near-identical dunk moments earlier. St. John’s missed eight straight shots and head coach Rick Pitino had to call a timeout after Council rattled in a floater to cut the margin to 16-12.

Jackson tied the game with a pull-up jumper at 7:12, but Hopkins got a friendly roll on his third 3-pointer. A series of disjointed and turnover-prone offensive possessions prevented KU from doing much until Council broke the relentless St. John’s press for a layup and Peterson blocked a 3-pointer by Lefteris Liotoupoulos and forced the issue on another fast break to earn two free throws.

So KU had cut the lead to one point before back-to-back 3s by Ruben Prey and Joson Sanon restored the Red Storm’s cushion. St. John’s took a 34-26 lead into halftime despite shooting just 28.9%, aided by 12 points off nine KU turnovers.

The Johnnies matched their largest lead of nine points early in the second half on Hopkins’ career-high fourth 3-pointer, and after the Jayhawks’ response got back there again on another 3 by Ian Jackson, then stretched it to double digits with Hopkins again. KU went to the under-16 timeout trailing 47-37 and having lost possession on a turnover by Council.

Neither team accomplished much at the offensive end as the second half neared its midway point. As head coach Bill Self looked for answers, Kohl Rosario entered for his first minutes of the game and immediately got dinged with a turnover as KU bungled an inbounds pass. Self then had to call timeout after a floater by Dillon Mitchell put St. John’s ahead 54-40 with less than nine minutes remaining.

Rosario made a corner 3 to reduce the margin to 56-45. It was the first in the NCAA Tournament for a KU player other than Peterson.

Peterson missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Council knocked down a 3 of his own. Peterson added two free throws as the KU fans at Viejas Arena came to their feet, then wedged his way past Ejiofor for a three-point play that made it 58-53 with 5:19 to go.

Ejiofor’s back-to-back buckets halted the Jayhawks’ run, but KU got two in a row of its own and then forced a backcourt violation. Rosario flew in to put back a missed 3 by Peterson and made it a one-possession game, then Bidunga blocked Ejiofor at one end and soared in for his own putback at the other to make it 62-61 inside of two minutes to go.

Hopkins knocked down a late-clock 3-pointer, but White tipped in his own miss to make it 65-63.

KU called timeout with 24.4 seconds left and got the ball to Peterson, who drew a foul and made the tying free throws. The Jayhawks whittled the clock down to 3.9 seconds with a series of fouls, but Darling was able to score through the defense of Jackson to get the win for St. John’s.

Box score