Alexander and St. John's Win Convincingly Over Georgetown

 

Posh Alexander lead a balanced offensive attack and his team’s best effort defensively and St. John’s earned a much needed 88-69 over Georgetown at Madison Square Garden yesterday.

    While a convincing win over the Hoyas, who came into the game sporting just a 6-7 record and an 0-2 mark in conference play, does not provide kind of tournament resume building win they need it just might help them regain some confidence after a tough overtime loss at Connecticut. There were some good signs mostly provided by Alexander from the point guard position.

    As he has all season Julian Champagne led St. John’s with 25 points but, largely thanks to Alexander and his past and current teammate Dylan Adde-Wusu the team’s offense was balanced and efficient. Champagne was one of 4 double figure scorers. Posh and Dylan each had 17 points and 7 assists, while Posh added 6 steals. Forward Montez Mathis added 11 and Aaron Wheeler added 10 off the bench. His foul against the bigger and stronger Adama Sanogo on Tuesday at the end of regulation helped short circuit what would have been a great comeback and road win for the Johnnies, but he’s been a much-improved player since conference play began. That includes a 13-point 7 rebound performance against the Huskies

   After Ryan Motombo completed a hoop and harm 3-point play to tie the game at 15 St. John’s went on an 11-0 run that began when Aaron Wheeler connected on a trey off a pass from Adde-Wusu. Adde-Wusu then connected on a triple of his own assisted by Alexander. Champagne then connected on a short jumper assisted by Joel Soriano and then converted a pass from Adde Wusu for a three-point play because while Champagne’s dunk was blocked the ball got a piece of the rim and found its way to into the basket.

 The Red Storm led 43-32 at the half.  A jumper by Aminu Muhammad briefly trimmed the deficit to 9 as the second half began. The Hoyas would trim the deficit to 9 once more when Muhammad converted a pair of free throws but St. John’s, lead by Alexander and Adde Wusu pushed the tempo and pressured the Hoyas into 21 turnovers while committing just 10 themselves. St. John’s took a 20-point lead with 13:02 left in the game when Alexander set up Adde Wusu for a triple. St. John’s maintained a strong margin from then on thanks to the defensive effort Alexander had helped them establish.

“Everyone feeds off him,” coach Mike Anderson said of Alexander. “He was everywhere…it was a perfect game for him, He’s very talented and we’re blessed to have him on our team,” Anderson said. Indeed they are.

Notes And Observations Kaiden Rice led Georgetown with 19 points while Muhammad added 13 points and 12 boards.

 St. John’s improved to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in conference play. They will look for their first road win of the season Wednesday at Creighton.

 

Xaverian Bounces Back With Road Win Over CK

    Xaverian used terrific outside shooting and a strong defensive effort to bounce back from a tough Tuesday loss to Iona Prep and earn a tough road win over Christ the King 53-40 last night.

   The Clippers outscored the home team 16-6 in what would prove to be a decisive 3^rd period. Leading 23-21 as it began, they connected on 3 shots from 3-point range; one each from Don Colon-Lewis, Aaron Goldstein and Supreme Niles. Goldstein had set up Niles’ triple with a nice drive and kick. And following a tough mid-range shot by CK’s outstanding freshman Markell Alston, Niles returned the favor, hitting Goldstein with a perfect pass in the shooting pocket for another 3-pointer.

    Goldstein had given the Clippers the 2-point advantage they carried into halftime, opening the period with a steal and basket followed by a 3-pointer.  Junior forward Spencer Mahoney joined the scoring after that connecting on 8 of his 10 points, including a pair of treys. Mahoney also played a key part in the Xaverian’s defensive effort, combining with fellow forwards Lewis and Michael Walker to limit the Royals to one shot most possessions.

   The two teams are similar because both rosters are filled with talent but also very young. They both have experienced growing pains in the always difficult CHSAA “AA” league. The Clippers’ learning curve was steepened by early season injuries to both Mahoney and Walker as well as the early season absence of Nasir Muhammad. Last night’s impressive win was just the 6^th time the Clippers had their full roster together.

   The Royals came into the game having enjoyed a bit more success while talented youngsters like Alston, versatile 6’9” junior Brandon Williams, combo guard Devin Vanterpool and rugged sophomore wing Dwayne Pierce develop. But they too experienced how tough the league can be on Tuesday when they were beaten by St. Francis Prep, the deepest and best-balanced team on the Brooklyn-Queens side of the “AA” league.

   Following Tuesday’s loss to Iona Prep in a game that saw the Clippers squander a double-digit lead the Clippers would need to dig deep to find the resolve they needed to close out a big win. Primarily that came from a stellar start-to-finish defensive effort, but there were a couple of key plays for the offense that helped nail things down for the Clippers. The first came on the very first possession of the final stanza. On the play Niles made a steal and appeared to have an easy layup. Christ the King’s Vanterpool, a deceptively athletic 6’3” junior made a terrific chase down block. It would have been a momentum changing play for the Royals accept that Walker had followed the play, calmly took the hard carom off the board and converted a follow basket, giving the Clippers their largest margin of 16 points.

   The second 4^th quarter moment for the offense came with just over 3 minutes left. Vanterpool, who tied Goldstein for game high scoring honors with 15 points, and Williams who had found his touch in the second half, provided the Royals with an offensive spark. Williams hit a mid-range jumper to cut the margin to 43-33 and the sense in the gym was that a rally might be coming. This time, it was Muhammad’s turn to set up a teammate and he hit sophomore Nico Pena with a perfect transition pass for a trey.  Pena has been one of the Clippers’ most reliable 3-point shooters this season. The Royals guarded him well and to his credit he stayed patient and did not force action. When the opportunity came to make a big shot, he was ready and drilled it. The basket pushed Xavierian’s lead back to 13 and took the air out of a potential rally for the Royals.

   Early this season, national powers Stepinac and Hayes, along with St, Francis Prep have established themselves at the top of the league. But if the young Clippers and Royals can stay focused on improving for a playoff run, they could surprise a favorite or two and make a deep playoff run of their own.

Two Career Highs Lift St. John's to a Big Win in Their Return to Action

 

     On a night that saw St. John’s return from a 17-day COVID pause and open their Big East season, they got career best performances from two players. One, Julian Champagne has his star already well established. The second, Dylan Adde-Wusu has a star that’s just beginning to emerge in this his sophomore season. Together, they lifted the Red Storm to an 89-84 win over DePaul at Carnesecca Arena on a night when Louie celebrated his 97^th birthday.

    “Nothing surprises me about this kid”, coach Mike Anderson said of Champagne after he established career highs with 34 points and 16 rebounds. “He’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve had some good ones who worked hard like Joe Johnson and Bobby Portis”, Anderson said referencing a pair of NBA players whom he coached while at Arkansas. Champagne’s outing was also typically efficient as he converted on 12-22 shots including 4-7 from 3-point range.

   While Champagne started quickly with 13 first half points, it took Adde-Wusu a bit longer to get in the swing of things. He called it “a bad first half” for himself but St. John’s struggled at times also. Fatigue may well have manifested itself in two areas, free throw shooting, where St. John’s shot just 13-23 for the game and defensive rotations, which is harder to quantify but resulted in some easy hoops for DePaul. And while St. John’s led by as many as 11 in the opening stanza, they struggled to maintain a lead. It took a driving layup by Posh Alexander, who oddly did not start the game, to send the Johnnies to the locker room leading by just 4 at 39-35.

   That play turned out to be a portent of things to come for Posh who scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half including a pair of 3 pointers.

   The Johnnies opened up an 8-point margin behind those triples and maintained it until with the score 51-43 DePaul used a 7-0 run to trim the deficit to just one with 15:44 left. A dunk by Adde-Wusu briefly stopped that run but The Blue Demons got right back to work behind West Virginia transfer David Jones who connected on a jumper and a drive. When forward Brandon Johnson connected on a corner triple and converted a free throw, St. John’s found themselves trailing 60-55 11:50 remaining.

    After that Champagne and Montez Mathis helped St. John’s regain some traction offensively. Following a pair of free throws Mathis fed Champagne for a layup and then took a pass from Adde-Wusu for another basket. With St. John’s leading 65-63 with 8:55 to go the two teams traded baskets until Champagne gave St. John’s the lead for good at 71-69 with 7:14 remaining and an assist from Adde-Wusu. On St. John’s next possession O’mar Stanley took a pass from Alexander to give the Red Storm a two-possession margin. After DePaul closed the margin to 73-72 with 5:29 left Adde-Wusu fed Champagne first for a layup and then for a triple to make the score 78-72. Trailing by six DePaul had one last rally. They pulled to within 84-81 on consecutive layups by Brandon Johnson and Jevon Freeman-Liberty. That set the stage for the biggest of many big plays Adde-Wusu made. While he rightly attributed the bulk of his career high 17 points to his cutting and good passing from teammates, the shot that gave the Johnnies an 87-81 lead with 26 seconds left came on a play where the offense was stagnant and they needed and got a terrific clutch shot from a guy who appeared to be improving with each game prior to the COVID break.  If he can become a consistent 3^rd scoring option. St. John’s will become a tough out for any team in the conference. While the Johnnies could not get an NCAA resume building win in non-conference play there will be chances, beginning with Saturday’s game at Providence, to build that resume within league play.

Notes and Observations: Both Rafael Pinzon and Tareq Coburn missed tonight’s game, Coburn due to an injury and Pinzon for COVID related health and safety reasons even though he was present at the game. According to coach Anderson their availability for Saturday’s game will be a game time decision.

Adde-Wusu also had a team high 8 assists for the Johnnies while Joel Soriano had 9 rebounds and 3 blocks to go with 4 points and 3 assists.

DePaul dropped to 0-3 in league play despite a 24 point effort by Freeman-Liberty.