Ejiofor powers No. 6 St. John's past No. 25 Marquette 79-63 into 1st Big East final since 2000

NEW YORK (AP) — Zuby Ejiofor scored a career-high 33 points, a St. John's record in the Big East Tournament, and the sixth-ranked Red Storm pulled away from No. 25 Marquette 79-63 on Friday night to reach the conference championship game for the first time in 25 years.

Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. added 13 points and Ejiofor grabbed nine rebounds as the top-seeded Red Storm (29-4) wiped out an early 15-point deficit. They advanced to play No. 2 seed Creighton, a 71-62 semifinal winner over third-seeded UConn, on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

Kadary Richmond had 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for St. John's, which has won eight straight — and 18 of 19 since the new year. In the program's second season under 72-year-old Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, the Johnnies are one win from their fourth Big East Tournament title and first since 2000.

Kam Jones had 24 points for the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles (23-10), who lost all three matchups with the Red Storm this season and fell to 1-6 against them at the Big East Tournament.

Marquette: A lack of strength down low was a problem against Ejiofor and St. John’s all season, but the Golden Eagles will be happy to face someone outside the Big East when they enter the NCAA Tournament.

St. John’s: Making a strong bid for a No. 2 seed in the NCAAs, the Red Storm improved to 20-0 at home, including 11-0 at MSG — the program’s most wins at The Garden since compiling 13 in 1958-59. The last time the Johnnies finished unbeaten at home was the 1931-32 season.

St. John’s trailed by three early in the second half before Aaron Scott drained a 3-pointer, and a foul on Chase Ross was upgraded to a flagrant 1 following a replay review. That led to two free throws by Ejiofor at the start of a 16-3 spurt that gave the Red Storm a 10-point lead with 14 minutes left. Scott finished with 11 points.

Marquette opened 5 for 10 on 3-pointers, then missed 12 straight. By the time David Joplin ended the skid with 11:42 left, the Golden Eagles had gone from up 10 to down 10 before he connected.

St. John’s split two regular-season games with Creighton, which is 0-4 in Big East championship games.

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 all season. Sign up here. AP college basketball:  https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll  and  https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

St. John's's Deivon Smith (5) drives past Marquette's Kam Jones (1) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Kadary Richmond (1) shoots over Marquette's Chase Ross (2) and David Joplin (23) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Marquette's Royce Parham, left, defends St. John's's RJ Luis Jr. (12) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Marquette head coach Shaka Smart argues for a call during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the St. John's in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's head coach Rick Pitino calls out to his team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Marquette in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Deivon Smith (5) drives past Marquette's Kam Jones (1) and David Joplin (23) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Aaron Scott (0) celebrates with Simeon Wilcher and Zuby Ejiofor (24) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Marquette in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Kadary Richmond (1) shoots over Marquette's Royce Parham (13) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's RJ Luis Jr. (12) drives past Marquette's Damarius Owens (10) and Chase Ross during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Aaron Scott (0) celebrates after making a three-point shot during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Marquette in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Kadary Richmond (1) celebrates after RJ Luis Jr. (12) scored during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Marquette in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Zuby Ejiofor (24) looks to pass during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Marquette in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

St. John's's Zuby Ejiofor (24) shoots over Marquette's Ben Gold (12) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--

Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/

Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.

This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.

Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.

“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”

The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:

“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”

About Availity

Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Abridge

Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.

Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.

Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation