On the coldest night of the winter, the air conditioner inside Madison Square Garden was on full blast during the pregame shootaround. St. John’s forgot to shut theirs off.

Following a first half in which the Red Storm (7-7, 1-2) shot just 14 percent from the field; making just five of their 35 shots, their final rally came just a few minutes too late in a 73-58 loss at the hands of tenth-ranked Louisville, (13-2, 1-1) who beat St. John’s at their own game with a stifling press defense.

St. John’s was led by D’Angelo Harrison, whose 24 points led all scorers and gave the freshman his fourth 20-point game of the season; while the Cardinals picked up 17 points from sophomore guard Russ Smith en route to the victory.

St. John’s will regroup to face a resurgent Cincinnati team in what will serve as the Johnnies’ first Big East road trip of the season, and the team can take the following lasting impressions with them:

Lasting Impressions
– In addition to 17 points, seven assists and four steals off the bench from Russ Smith, Louisville picked up 12 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots from Senegalese center Gorgui Dieng, contributions that were good enough to warrant the game ball honors being shared for this contest.

– Once again, God’sgift Achiuwa struggled under the bright lights of the Garden, tallying just four points and six rebounds. The Nigerian import has averaged 14.6 points per game away from midtown Manhattan, but just 4.3 at the Mecca of college basketball.

– Here’s an interesting nugget, courtesy of JohnnyJungle.com founder Dave Krupinski: Both of St. John’s last two opponents have started a walk-on: Connecticut (Andre Drummond) and Louisville. (Kyle Kuric)

– Finally, head coach Steve Lavin took in the game from a suite at the Garden, despite continuing to recover from offseason prostate cancer surgery. While he did not give an official return time, he did comment about his presence in a statement issued by St. John’s senior associate athletic director for communications and men’s basketball sports information director Mark Fratto. Below are the words of the second-year head man:

“I’ll be going back on the road to recruit Thursday, so this was an opportunity on the calendar to attend a game and support the team. I will continue a modified schedule with duties that include being at practices, recruiting the 2012 class, and attending certain games.”

A year that started out so magically for St. John’s ended with a result most fans would like to forget.

Four days removed from perhaps their best game of the season, St. John’s (7-6, 1-1) brought down the curtain on 2011 with an 83-69 loss to ninth-ranked Connecticut. (12-1, 2-0)

Despite coming up short in the end, the Red Storm got 17 points from guard D’Angelo Harrison and a career-high 14-point effort from Sir’Dominic Pointer in a performance that showcased the fighting spirit of the youngest team in St. John’s 104-year program history.

“We feel like we’ve been better since the Kentucky game,” remarked assistant coach Mike Dunlap after the game. “As we go down this trail, the confidence for us is going to be substantial.”

St. John’s was done in by a hot shooting UConn team that simply outplayed the seven-man Red Storm rotation. The Huskies connected on nine of their sixteen three-point attempts, and shot a blistering 71 percent (15-for-21) in the second half. Both teams will be in action again on Tuesday; and not too far away from each other either, as UConn travels to the Prudential Center in Newark to meet Seton Hall while St. John’s welcomes Louisville into Madison Square Garden. Until then, we’ll leave you with some lasting impressions to ring in 2012.

Lasting Impressions
– They won the game, but UConn is a different team without Jim Calhoun, who served the second of a three-game suspension today. The Huskies just didn’t look as sharp on either side of the ball in the absence of their Hall of Fame leader.

– UConn works best with a three-guard lineup. In addition to Jeremy Lamb, (15 points) the Huskies got tremendous contributions from Ryan Boatright (10 points off the bench) and Shabazz Napier, (17 points, nine assists) who earned tonight’s game ball for his ability to both run the point and play off the ball with Boatright on the court at the same time.

– UConn also has a deeper and more talented bench than St. John’s, and the reigning national champions made no secret of that en route to outscoring the Red Storm bench 23-0.

– Finally, give St. John’s credit for not backing down on either side of the ball. A 12-1 run late in the second half cut a 23-point deficit and have fans a reason to believe, and for a while it seemed as though the two sides were trading baskets for several minutes. The Red Storm also limited UConn to just a plus-4 rebounding margin (32-28) and only committed seven turnovers, a change from recent losses in which the miscues reached double digits.

With just seven players in their rotation, it was not supposed to look this easy.

Thanks to career nights from two of their freshmen; one of whom set a new conference record, St. John’s (7-5, 1-0) played at a level that belied their tender age on their way to a 91-67 victory over Providence (11-3, 0-1) in the Big East opener for both squads.

“I didn’t even know that,” said Moe Harkless when informed of the fact that his 32 points broke a record for highest point total by a freshman in his Big East debut previously held by Troy Murphy and Allen Iverson. “I don’t know what to say. It’s an honor to be mentioned with those guys. Being able to break the record is a great feeling,” said the Queens native, who also had thirteen rebounds, four steals, and shot 14-of-17 from the field.

In addition to Harkless’ masterpiece, the Red Storm also got career bests from D’Angelo Harrison, whose 25 points and seven assists were personal highs for the Texan.

“What’s significant is that we were able to score that many points and play a team that came in pretty hot,” said assistant coach Mike Dunlap. “There’s lots that we can do to get better and our guys know that.” Gerard Coleman paced the Friars with 20 points in the losing effort for his sixteenth consecutive double-figure scoring game.

St. John’s hits the road in conference play for the first time this season when they tackle reigning national champion Connecticut on Saturday afternoon, but not before some highlights and turning points from last night’s statement win are shared first.

Lasting Impressions
– Moe Harkless’ 32 points broke the record for most points by a freshman in his Big East debut, eclipsing the old mark of 30 previously held by Troy Murphy and Allen Iverson. Coincidentally, both of those previous performances also came at Providence’s expense. Harkless also added thirteen rebounds, four steals and four assists on 14-of-17 shooting. That sounds like an effort worthy of our game ball to me.

– Last night’s 91 points were the most by St. John’s in a Big East opener since January 2, 1990 (93 against Connecticut) and most in any Big East game since March 4, 2001. (91 against Syracuse) The 91 points also represented the highest output overall since St. John’s scored 93 against Duke this past January. (Stats courtesy of Mark Fratto, St. John’s senior associate athletic director for communications and men’s basketball sports information director)

– The Red Storm won this game with their transition execution, scoring 34 points off 20 Providence turnovers and ending the night with fourteen steals. St. John’s also outscored the Friars 26-10 on fast breaks. Of the 20 turnovers; seven were committed by point guard Vincent Council, who entered the game with an assist to turnover ratio of greater than 2:1.

– Finally, the highlights were not restricted to the court. Providence head coach Ed Cooley gave the media a piece of his mind in his postgame press conference, and some of the memorable quotes are listed below:

– “Our kids were pathetic. I thought we were selfish today and we weren’t tough at all. That was very sad to see.”

– “We just didn’t pay attention to detail once the game started. To me, that shows a lack of focus.”

– “A blind man could have scored today. I promise you we will correct that.”

– “That was the worst defensive game I ever coached, and it will be addressed tomorrow at 6 a.m. Emphatically.”

It’s been said that revenge is a dish best served cold. Yesterday at Madison Square Garden, not only was it cold, it was also not easy on the eyes by any means.

Taking on Fordham University for the first time since last year’s upset loss at Rose Hill Gym, St. John’s (5-5) overcame a six-man rotation to defeat the Rams (4-6) by the final of 56-50 in their Holiday Festival matchup, ending a three-game losing streak. Three Red Storm players scored ten or more points, led by D’Angelo Harrison (15 points, six rebounds) and Moe Harkless. (13 points and 16 rebounds for his third consecutive double-double)

“The second shot opportunities really hurt us, and a lot of it has to do with their length,” said Fordham coach Tom Pecora. “We got some really good looks early and we didn’t make them. They (St. John’s) do a great job finding the ball on the weak side and closing you out.”

St. John’s faces Texas Pan-American in their final tuneup before opening Big East play, but not before we leave you with the ever-popular lasting impressions from yesterday’s matinee at the Garden.

Lasting Impressions
– Above all else, the effort St. John’s yesterday has to go down as one of the better outings of the season considering the Red Storm only played six men. For the first time this season, four starters played each of the forty minutes. Only Sir’Dominic Pointer (eight points, seven rebounds) was relieved during the game.

– The turning point of the game was an 18-0 St. John’s run spanning the end of the first half and start of the second stanza. Fordham struggled to hit a shot in this stretch much as they had throughout the game, as they only managed a 30 percent clip from the field in a statistic that proved to be their downfall.

– Fordham capitalized off turnovers, but St. John’s made a bigger difference in the paint and on second chance opportunities. In those two categories, the Red Storm outscored the Rams 34-20 and 20-7, respectively.

– Finally, our game ball goes to Moe Harkless. The freshman forward posted his third consecutive double-double by registering 13 points to go with a career-high 16 rebounds. When used effectively on either end of the ball, Harkless is very reminiscent of Seton Hall big man Herb Pope both from a talent level and skill set perspective, and that is something St. John’s can use with conference play now just nine days away.