If St.
John's players and coaches study the video of yesterday's smash hit debt at
Madison Square Garden, a 104-58 win over Fordham. a pair of missed shots by
their leading scorer D'angelo Harrison may be the source of some good natured
teasing from his teammates. The first one came with 13:29 left in the first half
and the Red Storm leading 13-11. The
second miss came with 1:05 left in the half with St. John's long having broken
the game open with a 50-32 margin.
In
between those two misses Harrison and his teammates played perhaps as perfect a stretch of basketball as has been
played in NCAA annals. Their 22-28 shooting for the half was reminiscent of the full game numbers put up
by Villanova in their "perfect game" upset win over Georgetown for
the 1985 national title. All their good work leaves coach Steve Lavin with a
potentially tricky decision. Does he let his team see the video of that stretch
to show them how good they can be when they "share the sugar" as he
often says to the tune of 29 assists. Or does he hide the disc from the kids
knowing that college basketball simply isn't supposed to be that easy.
"We
had everybody clicking today," said forward JaKarr Sampson. He along with
fellow forward Orlando Sanchez successfully applied another one of the axioms
that Coach Lavin quotes from the late John Wooden. Both guys repeatedly found
"the nail" or the top of the key area for easy baskets or passing
opportunities against Fordham's leaky
zone. Sanchez' big day included 8-10 shooting in route to a team high 19 points
in what Sampson called his "coming out party". Sampson himself added
12 with perfect 6-6 marksmanship. Their efforts were augmented beautifully by
Jamal Branch contributed 6 assists and along with freshman Rysheed Jordan
continued the vital albeit statistically modest play that was vital to Saturday's
win against Georgia Tech.
On the
defensive end, St. John's long and active zone proved to be the perfect antidote for Fordham's 4
guard offense and in particular for Jon Severe. The freshman from Christ the King helped the Rams briefly regain their
footing when he broke a game opening 7-0 spurt by St. John's with a step back 3
pointer. From that point, St. John's defense on Severe was nearly as perfect as
their execution on offense. Severe would not score another basket from the
floor, finishing 1-21 with just 9 points. He entered the game averaging over 23
per game.
"I
feel for Jon he's a New York kid with a lot of hype and it was his first time
at Madison Square Garden and he laid an egg," Fordham coach Tom Pecora
said. But then, mindful of what a tough kid Severe is he quickly added, "I
trust him. There'll be better days for him."
St.
John's scored 100 points in a game for the first time in 14 seasons as they
raised their record to 6-2 heading into next Saturday's return engagement to
MSG against Syracuse.
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