On a day that saw
St. John’s celebrate their coach’s birthday and a career milestone for their
best player and leader, Julian Champagne, the team played its most complete
game of the season. In what would ultimately be an 82-64 win for the Johnnies
over Patriot League rival Colgate, coach Mike Anderson saw his team build and
maintain a significant margin. The reasons for their success were simple, fewer
turnovers, and bench production.
The Johnnies committed
just six turnovers and moved the ball crisply for easy transition buckets from
start to finish. Their play was highlighted by two transition buckets that were
two pass fast breaks where the ball never hit the ground; one following a Montez
Mathis steal where he passed the ball ahead to Champagnie who, without a
dribble floated a pass ahead to Posh Alexander for a layup, and then a second
following a Champagnie block that saw Pinzon pick up the loose ball and hit
Posh, again without a dribble, for another easy deuce.
Two nods of appreciation must be given before
we take a closer look at the bench production. The first is to Dylan Adde-Wusu,
whose entrance into the starting lineup following the loss to Kansas on December
7th has helped the starting lineup by adding a player who moves the
ball, guards multiple positions in multiple areas (in the post and on the
perimeter) and has the ability to start the offense, no small thing because it
compliments Alexander’s relentlessness attacking the basket. Wusu’s place as a
starter also means that Stef Smith can come off the bench with even more of a
scorer’s mentality than he usually does, while he may not be part of a complete
second unit, his ability to score when starters, particularly Posh and/or Julian
are off the floor, becomes more important.
The second nod is to coach Anderson who has
insisted that the big picture for this year’s edition of the Red Storm include developing
the bench and, to borrow his words from previous post-game pressers “make it a
strong part of our team.” For now, that remains a lofty ambition, and time will
tell whether yesterday’s game was a step in that direction. In the short term,
the bench helped them avoid a repeat of the scary end game situation they encountered
vs. Monmouth where it took an alert defensive play by Alexander to save a possession
and ultimately preserve a tight win. Grad transfers Smith and Aaron Wheeler
played well but the best work of the bench brigade came from the two freshmen,
O’mar Stanley and Rafael Pinzon. Stanley
had 6 points and 5 rebounds while continuing to provide St. John’s defense with
a defender who can hedge and switch while playing the “5” position. Pinzon, the
former Long Island Lutheran star who has struggled since a thumb injury suffered
in practice following the loss to Indiana broke out in a big way with 14 points
on 6 of 8 shooting and 3 assists. “I keep using this word; he’s got moxie,”
Anderson said of Pinzon. “When you look at him and O’mar (Stanley) they bring a
lot to the table. He (Pinzon) has a good basketball IQ he plays with nice flair
and basketball savvy,” said the coach.
All tolled the bench accounted for 34 points which may well have kept
Colgate’s strong 3-point shooting game (they made 13) from becoming the equalizer
it might have been and has been. Colgate had the lead only briefly in the 1st
half and St. John’s not only extended it to 23 points but kept Colgate from
posing a serious threat. For that reason,
it was not only a great birthday present for the coach but an early Christmas
gift for the fans.
Notes and Observations:
Champagnie achieved the 1,000-point milestone in a typically efficient game,
scoring 19 points on 7-12 shooting including 5-7 beyond the arc. He became the
52nd player in the program’s history to reach that total and met the
moment with characteristic humility. “It’s exciting to join a great list of
guys who did that here. I take pride in it but it’s on to the next game,” he
said.
Colgate played the game without
leading scorer and point guard Nelly Cummings. The senior missed the game with
what was called an “upper body injury” Senior Jack Ferguson scored a game high 23
points for the Red Raiders.
