By Laura Amato
The St. John’s men’s basketball team couldn’t quite mount a late-game comeback last Friday night, but the Red Storm’s freshman backcourt continued to impress.
The Johnnies fell 92-86 to Minnesota in the young squad’s first true test of the season. But while the final score wasn’t exactly what St. John’s hoped for, the one-two punch of Marcus LoVett and Shamorie Ponds hardly blinked under the national spotlight.
“Any game we play is going to be a good test,” Red Storm coach Chris Mullin said. “We’ve got guys that haven’t played college basketball and the guys returning are sophomores. We’ll learn from it, keep working and we’ll get better for it.”
LoVett once again paced St. John’s with a team-high 31 points in addition to five assists. The performance was the highest point total by a Red Storm freshman since Moe Harkless racked up 32 against Providence in 2011.
Ponds, meanwhile, just missed his second straight double-double of the early schedule, notching 23 points and eight rebounds.
The duo became the first freshmen to record 20-plus points in back-to-back games since D’Angelo Harrison did it against UCLA and DePaul in February 2012.
The most impressive LoVett-Ponds stat line of the night, however, came down the stretch as the duo did their best to will St. John’s to a come-from-behind victory. The Red Storm trailed by as many as 15 points with just over 12 minutes left in regulation before the two took control, sparking the offense and clawing back to within three on a Tariq Owens put-back slam.
That offensive push couldn’t quite last.
Minnesota jumped back out to a double-digit lead with 4:37 left in regulation and while the Storm cut the deficit several times, St. John’s missed a handful of prime shots as the seconds ticked away.
“You’re going to make and miss shots,” Mullin said. “We didn’t get the quality shots that I would like. I would like more ball movement and some high pick-and-rolls. The ball was a little stagnant but that happens when you’re down.”
The key down the stretch—and something Mullin harped on throughout the preseason—rested on St. John’s defensive performance. LoVett and Ponds racked up the points, but collectively the Red Storm struggled to slow down Minnesota’s weapons. Amir Coffey racked up a game-high 30 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including 11-of-12 from the line, while three other Gophers notched double-digit performances.
“He killed us in the first half. We helped him a little bit and got him going, but he’s got nice length and nice touch,” Mullin said of Coffey. “I thought the turnovers and paying attention to detail on defense is what turned the game.”
Ponds and LoVett’s performance is, certainly, something for the Red Storm to build on, but St. John’s isn’t willing to rest on the pair’s laurels all season. In fact, Mullin was the first to point out that the squad needs production from its entire roster and, most importantly, consistency.
“We got off to a good start but with about 10 to 12 minutes to finish the first half I thought we had some turnovers and lost some assignments,” Mullin said. “We came back, competed and played a good half but that 10 to 12 minutes is where the game turned.”
