By Laura Amato
It felt a bit like Christmas had come early for the St. John’s men’s basketball team.
The Red Storm took down Syracuse 93-60 at the Carrier Dome Dec. 21, marking the third straight victory over the Orange in the annual rivalry matchup.
The 33-point win gave Syracuse its worst loss in program history on its home court.
“I really can’t explain it, especially, after the game we were coming off,” St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said. “I keep telling [our team] that if they want to be a winning team, that’s the process you have to go through.”
The game was a complete turnaround for a St. John’s squad that could hardly do anything right in a lopsided loss to Penn State Dec. 18. This team, however, looked completely different as the Storm hit their collective stride from the opening whistle.
“One thing I have learned in my short [coaching] stint is that you just never really know with these young guys,” Mullin said. “We’ve had some really good games already and we’ve had some stinkers. They don’t go out there and do it on purpose. With experience comes consistency and with inexperience comes erratic play.”
Freshman guard Shamorie Ponds got back on track – taking up the mantle of leadership once again after Federico Mussini was unable to travel with the team due to an infection – with a game-high 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds. The Brooklyn native also notched a career-high four steals.
He didn’t turn the ball over once.
“We never lost focus and we stayed together as a family,” Ponds said. “We’re one of the youngest teams in the country. We’re maturing and getting better day-by-day.”
Ponds’ offensive spark jump-started a 14-point Red Storm run midway through the first half and the squad took a 39-29 lead into halftime.
Syracuse did its best to battle back in the second half, making it a six-point game just a minute into the period, but St. John’s answered with another run and the Orange were never able to recover.
The Red Storm pushed the ball through Syracuse’s infamous 2-3 zone with ease, recording 27 assists on 34 baskets, a season-high. The number was also the most since St. John’s notched 29 assists against Fordham in 2013.
“When you play against a team like Syracuse with the 2-3 zone, the best in basketball, you can attack it a lot of different ways, but at some point you have to make shots,” Mullin said. “We did a better job with that.”
St. John’s shot a blistering 69 percent from the floor in the second half and finished 34-of-64 for the entire game. Syracuse shot just 32.8 percent on the night and converted only four shots from behind the arc.
By the final whistle, the Red Storm saw eight players put points on the board, including three in double digits. Bashir Ahmed chipped in 20 points and five rebounds, while Malik Ellison added 16.
“We shot the ball really well,” Mullin said. “We moved it around and our intensity was better.”
St. John’s is hoping to find a bit of stability with a win like this, looking to use the lopsided showing as a jumping off point ahead of league play. The Red Storm were slated to host No. 13/13 Butler in their Big East-opener on this Thursday.
“In a game like this they can see what we’re talking about,” Mullin said. “Not so much the score, but when you give an effort and [bring] energy and share the ball and do the right things, at some point it works.”
