St. John’s game against lowly Niagara was sandwiched between Big East foes Rutgers and Miami, smack between an up-and-coming local rival and a club that has pulled off a number of memorable upsets against the Red Storm.
But despite the Purple Eagles’ modest 6-5 mark, and St. John’s new lofty No. 10-ranking in yesterday’s Associated Press poll – its first Top 10 appearance since 1991 – to a man the Red Storm said they weren’t looking past Niagara last night. Not a chance. Especially not after last year.
Niagara not only broke an eight-game losing streak against St. John’s last year; they took a large part of the Red Storm’s dignity, too. The Purple Eagles held St. John’s to 30-percent shooting and whipped the Red Storm 86-63 in the ECAC Holiday Festival in the Garden.
And even though St. John’s did learn some valuable lessons from that loss – winning 15 of its next 21 games en route to the best season since 1990-91 – the Red Storm clearly didn’t plan on having to go through the same experience again.
“It will not happen this year,” sophomore forward Ron Artest had boldly predicted before last night’s game. And it looked like a good call from the beginning.
St. John’s came into last night’s clash 11-2 and riding the crest of an eight-game winning streak – the team’s longest since opening that 1990-91 season 9-0. And they were coming off an emotional win at Rutgers, rallying from a 14-point deficit to earn a tough 77-73 win and improve to 3-0 in the Big East for the first time since their Chris Mullin-Mark Jackson Final Four season in 1984-85.
And the Storm has done it with balance. Artest is leading the team with 15.6 points per game, but St. John’s has four players averaging in double figures, and reserve guard Lavor Postell is close at 8 points per game. Artest figured that with that many scorers, the odds of the Purple Eagles shutting St. John’s down again were pretty slim.
“We have a lot of people who can score, and a lot of people who can play,” Artest said. “We’ve got so many people on this team. We’re like one [cohesive] team. Whoever’s night it is, it’s a team. If I didn’t have the opportunity to score, somebody else would’ve did it.”
The Red Storm players said they weren’t looking past Niagara, even after the tough Rutgers win on Saturday and a just-as-tough road trip at Miami tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The surging Hurricanes are 8-2 behind Tim James and Johnny Hemsley, and even when they were bad, they found ways to beat St. John’s.
The ‘Canes earned their first Big East win, 45-42 on Jan. 14, 1992 over the Red Storm, and their first league road win at St. John’s 82-79 on Jan. 1, 1995.
But the Red Storm said they were focusing on Niagara last night, not Miami. They knew that with Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Week Alvin Young – seventh in the nation in scoring at 23 ppg – the Purple Eagles were dangerous. As if last season’s ECAC loss hadn’t taught them that.
“We’re not looking past anybody,” said reserve guard Collin Charles. “We’ve won eight in a row, we’re jelling together. We’re not gonna let our heads swell. We know that.
“We’re still a little bit rusty. We’re fresh of Christmas break, we celebrated with our family. But now we’re back on track, back at it in practice, and we’ll be OK.”
It was Charles that typified St. John’s depth and balance, coming off the bench and scoring 10 points after freshman point guard Erick Barkley fouled out. He went a perfect eight-for-eight from the free-throw line and scored the Red Storm’s final eight points in the come-from-behind win. And he says he’s happy to be a cog in the St. John’s machine.
“I’m not going to mess this up. Well I’m [getting] well-educated, I’m on a good club,” Charles said. “I knew if I let the chips fall where they may, I’ll be OK.”