As they got off to a 3-0 start this season, the young 2011-12 edition of the St. John's basketball team had struggled in two areas that would eventually hurt them; slow starts and free throw shooting. Last night, with a second chance to beat a consensus top 25 team in Texas A&M those two things combined to help the Aggies hang a 58-57 loss on the Red Storm in the consolation game of the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden yesterday
Coach Billy Kennedy's team used a potent inside attack and made all four of their three point shots in the opening 20 minutes and took what would be their largest lead of 23-12 with just under 8 minutes to go in the first half, as the Red Storm meandered through the opening 20 minutes. They finally rallied behind Moe Harkless and Phil Greene to pull to within 32-30 at halftime. Greene, who started yesterday in place of Malik Stith had his second straight strong game. Though he scored just 10 points his energy on defense and ability to get in the lane on offense gave St. John's a needed spark in what was shaping up to be a dreary early evening.
` Texas A&M started the second half as strongly as they started the first, bumping their margin back up to 40-30 with just 2:35 elapsed. Junior power forward Ray Turner, who finished with 16 points led his team to a dominant effort in the paint as the Aggies outscored the Red Storm 38-18 from in close. Almost despite this, St. John's enjoyed a huge advantage in free through attempts. And ultimately the fact that St. John's could not take advantage of that proved to be their undoing.
Elston Turner's jumper with 9 seconds left gave the Aggies the margin of victory. And while Nurideen Lindsey's misses after he drove the lane with 2 seconds left were the most glaring misses because of when they occured, everyone had a hand in what was a terrible night at the line for St. John's; one that cost them a game they could've stolen despite not playing well.
For the game they missed 16 free throws (21-38) they were even worse in the game's last moments. And while they came close in their first two tests against the kind of teams they'll see in the Big East there's clearly still some work to do.
`Mississippi State beat Arizona 67-57 in tonight's championship game as tourney MVP Arnett Moultrie led the way with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
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