SAN DIEGO (AP) — Zuby Ejiofor had 14 points and 11 rebounds, Bryce Hopkins added 13 points and fifth-seeded St. John's beat Northern Iowa 79-53 on Friday night for its second NCAA Tournament victory since 2000.

Oziyah Sellers scored 11 points for Rick Pitino's gathering Red Storm (29-6), who have won 20 of 21 since early January in increasingly impressive fashion. With a fluid, balanced offensive effort against the nation's stingiest scoring defense, St. John's jumped to a huge early lead at Viejas Arena and never trailed the 12th-seeded Panthers (23-13).

The New York City program revitalized by Pitino ended its 25-year March Madness victory drought last season. After rolling through the Big East tournament last week, Pitino's current team is one win away from the Johnnies' first trip to the Sweet Sixteen in the 21st century.

St. John's will return Sunday to face the winner of fourth-seeded Kansas’ meeting with Cal Baptist in the East Region bracket.

Trey Campbell scored 14 points and Leon Bond III added 12 for Northern Iowa, which surprisingly snared its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016 by streaking through the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last week with four wins in four days as the sixth seed.

The Panthers' stingy defense hung in against the Big East champions' vibrant offense, but Ejiofor and the Johnnies have resembled a national title contender since shortly after the calendar flipped to 2026.

St. John’s made five straight shots while scoring the game’s first 13 points and taking an 18-point lead in the opening minutes. Northern Iowa missed nine of its first 10 shots and didn’t score 10 points until midway through the first half, eventually trailing 47-28 at halftime.

The Johnnies slumped slightly from the field after halftime, but their lead never dipped below 13 points.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan has been cleared to return to competition at the Asian Boxing Championships following a review of her sex eligibility.

World Boxing, the sport's Olympic-level governing body, announced its decision Friday ahead of the Asian championships, which begin March 29 in Mongolia.

Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria won gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics amid international scrutiny and misconceptions over both boxers' sex. While both met the eligibility rules followed at the time by the IOC, which ran the Paris tournament, the two fighters' success sparked a politically charged debate over those standards.

World Boxing took over as the sport's governing body last year, and it implemented a sex eligibility policy last August requiring all fighters to take a one-time genetic test designed to identify the presence of a Y chromosome.

Lin has been absent from several international competitions since World Boxing introduced the test last summer. World Boxing didn't specify the results of Lin's test, but said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association had mounted an appeal process for one of its boxers following a test last year.

“We recognize that this has been a difficult period for the boxer and the CTBA and appreciate the way they have approached the appeal process and their acknowledgement of World Boxing’s requirement to ensure that its eligibility policy, which is designed to deliver safety and sporting integrity, has been correctly implemented and followed,” World Boxing secretary general Tom Dielen said in a statement.

Khelif also has not competed in World Boxing-sanctioned events since the implementation of the test, but has periodically indicated she would like to return to the Olympic-level sport. Khelif also plans to make her professional boxing debut in April, but pro fighters are now allowed to compete in the Olympics.

Chromosome testing was common in Olympic sports during the 20th century, but was largely abandoned in the 1990s because of numerous ambiguities that couldn’t be easily resolved by the tests, collectively known as differences in sex development.

Along with its appeal process, World Boxing said it offers additional analysis and evaluation for athletes with Y chromosome genetic material who wish to compete in the women’s categories, including genetic screening, hormonal profiles, anatomical examination and further evaluation of endocrine profiles by medical specialists.

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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing