Sampson's Strong Second Half Lifts St. John's Past Holy Cross

            For the first 25 or so minutes of St. John's 65-53 win over Holy Cross home cooking did not taste so good for the Red Storm. While the Crusaders had nothing resembling the size and athleticism of the Baylor team that had beaten St. John's last Sunday they played St. John's even thanks mainly to execution and effort.

            The Crusaders' patient approach on offense seemingly frustrated St. John's as they hurt themselves the way young teams often do quick shots and lack of ball and player movement. A point guard with a familiar name to St. John's fans, Justin Burrell, helped his team successfully navigate St. John's changing defenses while center Dave Dudzinski never got above the rim but put St. John's big men on his back posting up for baskets.  He and Burrell each had a team high 12 points for Holy Cross.

            Since he struggled in the Red Storm's season opening win against Detroit Mercy. JaKarr Sampson has been the team's best frontcourt  player scoring 14 and 18 points  in losses to Baylor and Murray State. The improvement in his comfort level continued last night even in the first half as his team struggled. It was his jumper just before the halftime buzzer that tied the game at 30 at the intermission. The game went back and forth in the opening minutes of the second stanza until HarD'angelo Harrison gave St. John's a 38-37 with a three pointer from the right side.  Sampson then added 6 of his 20 points to spark a 9-2 run that helped the Red Storm put some distance between themselves and the visitors. Harrison added 17 points for the Johnnies while Phil Greene added 15 for St. John's. Head coach Steve Lavin praised the team's defensive effort in the final 20 minutes as an essential ingredient to the win.

            "We were tied together defensively with good communication that allowed us to pressure Holy Cross more effectively that allowed us to pressure Holy Cross more effectively and take away their air space," Lavin said.  That effort not only helped St. John's limit Holy Cross to 23 second half points but helped them slice what had been a substantial first half rebound margin in favor of Holy Cross. For the game Holy Cross outrebounded the Red Storm 35-31

            Once again both Chris Obekpa and Felix Balamou provided a spark off the bench with energy and toughness.  While the numbers, save for Obekpa's 6 blocks were modest they both appear to be rising steadily on the depth chart as St. John's gets ready for a Florida Gulf Coast team on Saturday that has already beaten ACC rival Miami and lost a tough well contested game at Duke. They'll need to be tied together defensively against a team that can shoot the three ball and moves the ball very well.