For the first 20 or so minutes of last night's 74-59 win over William & Mary it looked like a very young and athletic St. John's team was on the verge of getting an early and painful lesson.
Coach Tony Shaver's squad moved the ball patiently and smartly against the Red Storm's zone defense and found senior forward Quinn McDowell early for some great looks. And as the Tribe shot their way to an early advantage St. John's looked like a team trying to make up the deficit all at once. While there weren't many turnovers there were an awful lot of quick shots taken and shots taken without good ball movement. William & Mary took a 33-26 lead into half time and when Kendrix Brown found McDowell open for a jumper for the first basket of the second half it looked like the Tribe was ready to stage an early season upset.
At that point St. John's young squad was able to speed the game up where they needed to, on defense. As they picked up the tempo, got some steals and turnovers they also eschewed the three point shot in favor of driving the ball inside. Sophomore guard Nurideen Lindsay scored 15 of his 19 points in the second 20 minutes and when he wasn't finishing plays for scores he was setting up both God'sgift Achiuwa and Moe Harkless who each chipped in 17 points and added 9 and 8 rebounds respectively.
Even as they extended their pressure, St. John's also did a much better job of defending against the three in the second half. After the Tribe had made 7 triples in 21 tries in the first half St. John's covered shooters much better in the second limiting them to just 11 attempts and 4 makes.
For St. John's, which takes on Lehigh in round two of the 2k Sports Classic for the benefit of Coaches vs. Cancer D'Angelo Harrison added 14 points. McDowell led the Tribe with a team high 20 points while Julian Boatner added 12.
The Red Storm played the game without head coach Steve Lavin, who continues to recuperate from prostate cancer surgery on Oct. 6th
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