St. John's.
like most young teams has endured the inevitable inconsistency that happens as
young players learn to compete at the highest level of college basketball. But
in a league like the Big East, where teams learned long ago that games are not
won on style points, the young Johnnies are doing just fine.
Take a cursory glance at this game
and you see a familiar scenario. As they
have several times this season St. John's sprinted to an early lead. Their top
two scorers D'angelo Harrison and Jakarr Sampson scored 11 points each in the opening
stanza, and they combined with Marco Bourgault's three point marksmanship to
give them a 31-20 halftime advantage. The lead would have been much more were
it not for former Christ the King star Omar Calhoun, who reminded local fans
how he became the all time leading scorer at one of the city's best programs.
He scored 13 of his game high 21
points in the first half but it wasn't until teammate Shabazz Napier joined
Calhoun scoring that the Huskies got going. Jakarr Sampson scored with just
over 16 minutes left to give the Johnnies their largest margin at 39-24.
At that point Napier and reserve
R.J. Evans hit consecutive triples for UConn that sliced that began a 15-1.
that trimmed the margin to just 40-39 with 10:49 left. Harrison sat for 9
minutes at the beginning of the second half and was out of the game for much of
that UConn rally. While reports indicated that he was playing with a swollen
ring finger on his shooting hand, watching the game it was clear that his
extended time on the pine had more to do with discipline with than with any
physical problems. When asked about it after the game Coach Steve Lavin tried
to answer without saying too much. "The thinking is sometimes when a
player goes through a tough stretch you can help them by sitting them on the
bench,: Lavin said. "He gets to see the game from a different prism or
lens It can be like smelling salts snap a kid's head back in and help him see
what's needed at that point." Harrison was more to the point discussing
the situation. "I wasn't making shots so I was a non-factor," he
said. "But I came back in and we won the game."
Following the 15-1 spurt for the
Huskies St. John's maintained a small margin until UConn pulled ahead 53-51 on
two free throws by Ryan Boatwright with 4.29 to go. St. John's did a great job hanging tough
during that stretch in large part because Sampson, who finished with 18 points
continued to make his presence felt while going through a difficult freshman
lesson, learning to play with foul problems. After Phil Greene tied the game at
53 he assisted on a Sampson jumper that gave the Johnnies a 55-53 margin.
Harrison, now having rejoined the fray in mind as well as body took a pass from
Sir^Dominic Pointer to give them a 5 point margin. While St. John's maintained
the margin with nearly perfect free throw shooting (16 of 18 down the stretch
UConn did close it to three on two free throws by Niles Giffey with 49 seconds
left but another clutch jumper by Harrison gave took away the Huskies' last
breath and gave St. John's its 7th league win and 15th on the season.
The win followed a familiar script
with the unique elements of Harrison's extended time on the bench and clutch
free throw shooting. As he has in previous games Harrison came through
following a slow start. No, it wasn't pretty but it looks great on the
proverbial "left side" for St. John's
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