Clutch Down the Stretch Harrison Leads St. John's Past Seton Hall 71-67

            It's likely that fans of St. John's and Seton Hall, who've followed their teams all year knew going in that this would be a basketball example of the old boxing adage "styles make fights"  Not only was this a game between a Seton Hall team that was physical and tough inside against a St. John's team that was faster and more athletic, but the action got a bit chippy at times as the two teams seemed to fight as much for local bragging rights as for position in the Big East standings

            After all, the visitors from South Orange were playing the Red Storm at the Garden for the first time since 2006. And they did their best two establish bruising center Eugene Teague early.  The Vineland NJ native who transferred home from Southern Illinois helped the Pirates to an early five point advantage. But St. John's had an answer as they took advantage of a quickness mismatch with Jakarr Sampson in the key against Teague.  Sampson, who had a rocky beginning to both the season and Big East play has now become one of the young Johnnies steadiest performers and his first half play on the way to 19 points for the game helped St John's steady themselves and take a  38-33 advantage

            D'Angelo Harrison fed Sampson for a dunk to begin the second half and that began a 13-2 run that gave St. John's it's largest margin of 51-35 with just under 16 minutes  left. Harrison and Phil Greene who finished with 10 points provided the scoring punch and each assisted on jumpers by Sir^Dominic Pointer during the stretch, but as with a number of games this season the young Johnnies did not handle prosperity very well.

            With the help of some quick shots from St. John's the Pirates chipped away at the margin.  Teague posting and Fuqan Edwin slashing to the basket were the main parts of Seton Hall's offense and their work helped set up key treys from  Haralds Karlis and Aaron Crosby during the rally. Teague who would tie Harrison for game high scoring honors with 24 points made two free throws to cut the margin to just 60-59 with 4:22 left. Coach Steve Lavin called time out and reminded his team, that he said suddenly looked discouraged that "fellas we're still winning...." and that's when Harrison went to work and made sure St. John's would get their 4th straight win. He would score 10 of the Red Storm's final 12 points getting to the line and hitting on tough contested jumpers. The one other Johnnie to make a mark in the scoring column in those closing moments was Chris Obekpa, who used his perfect timing to tip in a crucial basket with 35 seconds left.

            "That's our captain stepping up," Pointer said of Harrison's performance. But that offensive effort doesn't result in a win without the team's ability to get defensive stops down the stretch.  With the win St. John's broke both a three game in season win streak for the Pirates and a three game streak against St. John's  for the Pirates. Both teams went to 13-7 overall while St. John's improved to 5-3 in league play. Seton Hall dropped to 2-5 in the Big East.