By Anthony Bosco
The struggling St. John’s University men’s basketball team got one last win Saturday night before beginning Big East Conference play, defeating the Niagara Purple Eagles, 72-65, at Madison Square Garden.
Led by sophomore point guard Elijah Ingram, the Red Storm rallied in the second half to overcome an eight-point Purple Eagles advantage, 46-38, outscoring their opponents 17-5 during a crucial seven-minute stretch.
“We haven’t found ourselves yet,” said interim head coach Kevin Clark, who has now coached the team to its first back-to-back victories of the season. “It’s still going to take us a while before we really find ourselves.”
Playing with a protective face guard since breaking his nose in a loss to Georgia Tech Dec. 21, Ingram had struggled on the offensive end until finding his stroke Saturday. The diminutive guard, now playing the two-spot while Daryl Hill takes over the point responsibilities, had just three points at the halfway mark as Niagara clung to a slim 34-32 lead.
But after the visiting upstate school stretched its advantage to eight, the Johnnies erupted.
A Grady Reynolds bucket at 12:21 of the second half cut the deficit to six, setting up two baskets by Ingram sandwiching a bucket by Andre Stanley to tie the game at 46.
The two teams then traded scores before Ingram drilled a three-pointer that put St. John’s ahead, 51-50. Lorenzo Miles connected on one-of-two from the charity stripe to knot the score again, but baskets by Ingram and Reynolds, who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, put SJU up for good just moments later.
Ingram led all scorers with 21 points and added four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“We are jelling together,” said senior forward Kyle Cuffe, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds.
The painful process of finding some success on the court has already cost former head coach Mike Jarvis his job, but the new-look Red Storm, with Hill handling the point guard spot and Ingram looking to score, seems to fit the players.
“We haven’t lost yet, so we might as well go with it,” said Hill, who had nine points, six assists and six rebounds. “We communicate much better. We get more comfortable every night.”
Still, it wasn’t all peaches and cream against Niagara, a mid-major program a Big East school such as St. John’s is supposed to handle with relative ease.
After racing to a quick 11-2 lead 4:48 into the first half, the Red Storm’s offense just as suddenly hit the skids. Led by the play of Juan Mendez (20 points, 16 rebounds), Tramell Darden (17 points, seven rebounds, four assists) and David Brooks (14 points, nine rebounds, three assists), the Purple Eagles fought their way back into contention by outworking St. John’s under the boards.
Niagara, playing with a considerable height disadvantage, outrebounded the Red Storm 49-38 for the game, 20-14 on the offensive end. St. John’s scored just four points in the final five minutes of the first half, while Niagara went into the break on the strength of two three-pointers, the last of which by Miles gave the visitors a 34-32 lead.
Mendez scored five points in 20 seconds to give Niagara its biggest lead of the day, 46-38, at the 14:42 mark of the second half. But the new-look Red Storm responded, something the team will have to continue now that it has begun its conference slate.
St. John’s was 4-6 heading into Wednesday’s matchup against the defending NCAA champion Syracuse Orangemen. The team will be back at Madison Square Garden Saturday for a conference showdown against the Seton Hall Pirates. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
