By Anthony Bosco
This year's squad avoided that distinction with a hard-fought 72-65 win before a sold-out Alumni Hall last week. The Red Storm held Manhattan, which led at halftime 38-32, to just six field goals in the second half on 23.1 percent from the field.
“We knew St. John's backs were to the wall,” said Manhattan head coach Bobby Gonzalez. “We knew it would be a tough game.”
The Red Storm had lost three straight prior to taking the floor, defeats by Fordham and Hofstra sandwiching a loss to Ohio State. St. John's record stood at 4-5 and Jarvis, who had toyed with his starting lineup over the first nine games, took a drastic step against the Jaspers, sitting down senior captain Reggie Jessie, who had started 42 consecutive games for the Johnnies.
The starting five for St. John's featured point guard Omar Cook, first-year player Sharif Fordham, freshmen Willie Shaw and Mohamed Diakite and junior Anthony Glover. The start was the first of the year for Fordham. Diakite, who has started every game since returning from a preseason injury, would only see five minutes of action in the game, all in the first half.
“We won and that's not to be taken lightly,” Jarvis said after the game. “Winning usually brings on more winning.”
St. John's took a 5-3 lead on Shaw's first three of the game at 8:17, but the Jaspers responded quickly, scoring eight straight points over the next three minutes to take an 11-5 advantage. Shaw nailed a three and laid another in for two more to pull St. John's to within one. Back-to-back baskets by Cook capped the 9-0 run, giving the Red Storm a 14-11 lead.
For the next six minutes both teams battled on even terms until a made free throw by Manhattan's Jared Johnson started a 9-0 by the Jaspers to give the visitors a 31-24 lead with 4:33 remaining in the first half. The lead ballooned to eight moments later on Durelle Brown's free throw, but was cut in half on Cook's three with 1:00 to go. Brown finished the first half scoring with another layup, bringing his first half total to 16.
Throughout the first half Manhattan dominated play, winning the boards, forcing nine SJU turnovers and getting to the line. But the usually reliable Jasper team, which led all of Division I from the charity stripe heading into the game, hit just 7-of-15 from the line.
But the game completely turned around in the second half. After a halftime when Jarvis told his team “enough already,” St. John's opened with 10 straight points to retake the lead, 42-38, and didn't flinch when Manhattan quickly bounced back with a 9-2 run of its own to go back up 49-43.
The St. John's defense then clamped down on Manhattan, preventing the Jaspers from scoring another field goal for more than five minutes, during which time the Red Storm went ahead 59-53.
“We executed well when we had to down the stretch,” Jarvis said. “They hung together and won the basketball game.”
Instead of letting the game slip away late, the Red Storm rallied. After Manhattan pulled to within five with three minutes to go, St. John's clamped down again, holding the Jaspers scoreless until the final 30 seconds and scoring seven straight points to put the game out of reach.
After losing the rebounding battle in the first half, 20-17, St. John's allowed Manhattan just eight boards in the second half to finish with a 43-28 advantage. The Red Storm also shot 61.9 percent from the field in the second half and 55.3 for the game, more than 20 points better than Manhattan's 34.5 percent.
“I thought they executed much better in the second half. I wasn't sure which we were going to see,” Gonzalez said. “They really turned it on in the second half. We had trouble scoring, but we had some good shots we didn't hit.”
Cook finished with 22 points and eight assists, while Shaw had 19 points. Glover did most of the work on the boards, collecting 12 rebounds to complement his nine points. Kyle Cuffe and Donald Emanuel had seven boards apiece, with both collecting quality minutes in the second half. Fordham made the most of his first start, scoring eight with three assists and five rebounds. Jessie saw only 12 minutes of action in the game.
Diakite had just one rebound and no points in five minutes and despite the performance of Emanuel and Cuffe, Jarvis said he is committed to Diakite as his starter.
“Mohamed is the center of the future and he knows it,” Jarvis said. “But he has a lot to learn. Tonight I couldn't afford to let him learn on the court.”
Notes: Next up for the Red Storm are the 4-6 University of San Francisco Dons of the West Coast Conference at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Alumni Hall. The game will be televised by MSG and broadcast on radio on 1050 WEVD. The Dons, loser of their last two games, are led by Darrell Tucker, Ali Thomas and James Lee.
