St. John's Escapes Upset Bid By NJIT 77-68

 

        Joel Soriano opened the overtime period by snaring on offensive rebound and converting a pass from Dylan Adde-Wusu. After James Lee and Montez Mathis traded hoops and St. John’s led 67-65, Soriano took another pass, this time from Julian Champagne who converted a hoop & harm 3-point play. Lee responded for NJIT with a three-point play of his own to trim the lead back to 2 points at 70-68. From there St. John’s would score the last 7 points of the extra session to earn a 77-68 win over America East foe NJIT at Carnesecca Arena on Saturday.

    It took St. John’s a while to get going as NJIT, behind a quartet of talented guards, controlled the tempo for the game’s first 20 minutes. There wasn’t in this game the 3-point barrage there had been Wednesday by St. Francis but there was a slow and steady approach in which NJIT ran their sets and maintained a small lead throughout much of the first half. When Posh Alexander took a pass from Montez Mathis to give St. John’s a 5-point lead, the highlanders calmly inbounded the ball and Antwuan Butler threw a perfect hit ahead pass to Dylan O’Hearn who stroked a 3-ball and sent the Highlanders into the locker room trailing by just 33-31.

   The Johnnies appeared to take control of the game with a 17-5 run that included 10 straight points. It gave them a 58-42 lead with just over 11 minutes to go. Posh Alexander, returning from a calf strain that caused him to miss Wednesday’s game lead the rally with steals, a play that saw him soar through the air to get an offensive rebound and convert to free throws, and the terrific ball pressure that makes St. John’s defense go. “It’s contagious”. Coach Mike Anderson said of Alexander’s energy. “It picks up the whole team.”

    St. John’s got some energy from an unexpected source at the back end of that defense. Juco transfer Esahia Nyiwe scored just a single point on a free throw he banked in but during the aforementioned rally he had 3 blocks, a steal and 3 rebounds. He also proved to be a valuable defender, providing not only rim protection but the ability to switch on dribble hand off action and ball screens. “He didn’t have to score but he made a major contribution”, Anderson said of Nyiwe.

      With his team leading by 16 Anderson took out the unit that had sparked the rally to give them rest. It nearly backfired as the team never regained their flow on offense as they made just a pair of field goals while NJIT went on a 21-5 run to tie the game at the end of regulation.  They were fortunate to get just enough offense to start the overtime and 4 clutch free throws from Wusu to survive another scare.

Notes And Observations Soriano and Alexander tied for team high scoring honors with 16 each for the Johnnies. Guard Dylan O’Hearn had game high honors with 19 points while Lee added 17 for NJIT

When asked why he took the unit out that had built the 16-point advantage Coach Anderson cited the amount of time that unit had been in the game as well as his desire to develop a strong bench.

Freshman guard Rafael Pinson missed his 3^rd straight game with a broken finger. Coach Anderson said that he would hopefully begin shooting “next week” but that they would be cautious with the injury.