St. John’s new
arrivals from the transfer portal helped propel them to a convincing 97-72 win
over Northeast Conference rival Merrimack in their season opener at Carnesecca
Arena last night. Juniors Andre Curbelo (Illinois) and David Jones (Depaul) led a balanced
attack that featured five double digit scorers.
Curbelo finished with 13 points and 7
assists as he started alongside returning point man Posh Alexander. The two of
them together worked out as many had envisioned. Posh added 14 points and 5
assists of his own while contributing 6 steals. Jones scored 14 of his game-high
21 points in the second half and helped St. John’s maintain the margin they
built early despite the one huge red flag that came with the win, 29 turnovers.
Merrimack came into the game sporting a
brief yet impressive division one history. They arrived from one of the best
D-2 leagues in the country, the Northeast 10, and adjusted quickly, winning the
Northeast Conference’s regular season title in 2019-’20. Given what passes for
wisdom at the NCAA these days despite their quick success coach Joe Gallo’s Warriors
could not compete for a post-season tournament title and the NCAA bid that went
with it because they’re still thought by the powers that be to be in the “transition
phase” to Division one athletics. Make no mistake, they are thriving, favored
to be regular season league champs again featuring pre-season conference player
of the year Jordan Minor.
Gallo’s teams feature a sticky 2-3 match-up
zone and while St. John’s built their early lead moving the ball well against
it once they built that lead they got careless.
The Johnnies used a 23-5 run to take a 32-14
lead with just over 9 minutes to go in the first half. Jones and Soriano
provided the scoring punch while Curbelo and Posh pushed the tempo. The
Johnnies took a 51-30 lead into the locker room, and saw that lead extended
when Jones connected on three treys early in the second half.
Merrimack was finally able to make
St. John’s pay a bit for the turnovers as they closed the gap to 15 points with
8:34 left in the game. After that St. John’s regained their footing and following
a steal and bucket by Posh the Johnnies had their largest margin of 87-58 with
5:02 left in the game
Notes
Observations And OMG 29 Turnovers: First and foremost, congratulations to Montez Mathis who scored
his 1,000th career point with 6:15 remaining in the game. While most
of those were scored during his time at Rutgers, he has carved out an important
niche at St. John’s as a defender and scorer on the court and a leader in the locker
room congratulations.
Before we
get to the bad stuff here’s some of what was good: Five double figure scorers
is always good and in addition to Posh, Curbelo and Jones, Mathis and Soriano
each hit double figures. Soriano had a double double with 12 and 11 caroms. The
Johnnies limited the Warriors to 20.7% shooting from deep and won the battle of
the boards 47-26. St. John’s will need to keep having statistical advantages in
those areas (especially 3-pt% defense) as the level of competition improves and
especially once conference play begins)
Here we go
29 turnovers: As I mentioned earlier Merrimack coach Joe Gallo plays what
appears to be a 2-3 match up zone defense. It’s hard to follow in part because
it’s hard to know when and where they’ll match up other than ALWAYS it seems
defending guards out front. That said. It would be nice to tell you that part
of St. John’s turnover problem stemmed from seeing an unusual scheme for the
first time. It would be nice but it wouldn’t be true. As coach Mike Anderson
noted “We got a lead and we got sloppy with the basketball. We got quick and we
got in a hurry”. Then he added quickly, “that will be addressed”. With one in
the books, and a game Saturday vs. Lafayette one thing is certainly lots of
work to do.
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