St. John's Fights Through Adversity for a win over Long Beach State and their Best Start Since '90-'91

              In any special season good teams face a time or two where they have to fight through adversity. St. John's faced some before the season began when they lost potential frontcourt help as Keith Thomas and Adonis Delarosa were ruled ineligible because of academic issues.

              Yesterday as they beat a tough Long Beach State squad 66-49 two more potential obstacles presented themselves. First, the team learned before the game that Rysheed Jordan would miss the game because of a stomach virus. The second obstacle showed itself during the game when star guard D'angelo Harrison, who entered the game as the Big East's leading scorer at 18 ppg, struggled for the first time all year finishing with just 9 points.

              No problem for St. John's. The senior laden team which has been praised all year by their coach Steve Lavin for their resourcefulness found several ways to negotiate those obstacles successfully. Their defense, which held Long Beach State to 1-13 three point shooting in the first half. "Our defense sustained us and allowed us to forge a lead until our offense caught up to the level of our defense," Lavin said.

              It's understandable that the offense catching up took a while with Jordan missing and Harrison struggling but once again the veteran Red Storm found some answers. In the backcourt Jamal Branch, whose offense normally takes a back seat as he runs the team chipped in with 11 points. Up front, Chris Obekpa had perhaps his best offensive game of the season, finishing with 16 points on 7-8 shooting.  The offensive outburst came with his usual good defense as he finished with 6 blocks.

              Long Beach State briefly grabbed leads in the second half but St. John's answered quickly each time first with an Obekpa  jumper  and next with a jumper from Phil Greene, who tied Obekpa for game high scoring honors with 16 points. Guard Mike Caffey lead Long Beach State while Tyler Lamb added 10 points.

              The win raises St. John's record to 10-1, giving them their best start since the 1990-91 season when they reached the elite 8.