No one ever said it was going to be easy.

Playing their first game following a 22-point loss to top-ranked Kentucky, St. John’s (4-5) dropped their third consecutive contest, losing on the road to the University of Detroit (4-6) by the final of 69-63. The loss came on a celebratory night for the Titans, as they honored former coach Dick Vitale, now an ESPN analyst, by dedicating their home court to him.

Ray McCallum (21 points) and Chase Simon (20 points) led the way for Detroit, while a double-double from Moe Harkless (19 points, 11 rebounds) and a 10-point outing from Detroit native Sir’Dominic Pointer were the lone bright spots for the Red Storm.

As St. John’s takes a brief hiatus for final exams, we leave you with some lasting impressions from the Johnnies’ road trip before the Red Storm return to the court one week from Saturday against Fordham at Madison Square Garden.

Lasting Impressions
– Call it coincidence, but St. John’s is a different team when they don their alternate black jerseys. Sadly, the curse of the black reared its ugly head once again last night. St. John’s has won just one game in the black, which came on senior night last March against USF.

– The ball handling skills of Nurideen Lindsey are really becoming a cause for concern after another ineffective night at the point. Lindsey did contribute seven rebounds, but only scored four points, and more importantly, committed six turnovers, while failing to register an assist on the night. When Lindsey fires on all cylinders, this team is a different unit, but it has yet to be seen since the Philadelphia native’s near-triple-double last month against UMBC.

– At the start of the season, Sir’Dominic Pointer was the relative mystery among the newcomers. Nine games into the season, one can now make the argument that the freshman swingman is arguably the best player on the roster, despite his reduced minutes in comparison to some of his teammates. Pointer provided yet another well-rounded effort last night, finishing with ten points, eight rebounds, and two highlight reel-worthy dunks in the opening half.

– As expected after last night’s result, the game ball will be awarded to Detroit point guard Ray McCallum. The coach’s son led all scorers with 21 points and, just as he did against Notre Dame earlier in the season, took the game over on more than one occasion. McCallum was singlehandedly responsible for putting the game away, as he went on his own personal run of eight points in a span of 72 seconds to answer every St. John’s threat down the stretch.

St. John’s celebrated Thanksgiving by helping those less fortunate. Their first game after the holiday, however, was a different story.

Fueled by hot outside shooting and an aggressive offensive rebounding effort, Northeastern (3-1) got a career-high 29 points from Joel Smith to walk out of Carnesecca Arena with a 78-64 victory over a Red Storm (4-3) team who was once again without the services of head coach Steve Lavin, who continues to recover from offseason prostate cancer surgery.

“We let him get 29,” said assistant coach Mike Dunlap when asked about Smith’s performance. “That’s on us. We gave up 38 points in the paint. That’s something we want to fix.”

The Red Storm did get 17 points and nine rebounds from God’sgift Achiuwa to lead the team, but essentially played from behind throughout the night. After Nurideen Lindsey (16 points) put St. John’s ahead 37-35, Smith drained a three-pointer to give Northeastern a lead they would not relinquish.

As the Red Storm prepare to open the month of December with their first road game of the season against Kentucky, JohnnyJungle.com leaves you with some “Lasting Impressions” from this upset in Queens.

Lasting Impressions
– Joel Smith got more than just the game ball for the Huskies. The junior shooting guard’s 29-point, 10-rebound performance is the second double-double of his career, and highest point output in school history since J.J. Barea, now of the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks, went for 29 back in 2004.

– In addition to their plus-9 offensive rebound margin, (21-12) Northeastern played fundamentally sound basketball throughout the night. The Huskies entered their meeting with the Red Storm averaging nearly 19 turnovers per game, but committed just ten miscues while forcing St. John’s to cough up the ball fourteen times.

– Today marked the first time in which neither D’Angelo Harrison nor Moe Harkless (eight points each) scored in double digits. After career-high performances in Tuesday night’s win over St. Francis, Harrison and Harkless shot a combined 5-of-20 from the field and 1-of-9 from three-point range in the losing effort against the Huskies.

– Finally, one of the few bright spots for the Red Storm was Sir’Dominic Pointer. Although he only scored eight points and was hindered by four fouls, Pointer provided another highlight reel-worthy dunk in the second half and made several other key defensive plays while St. John’s was still within reach. Pointer could very well be the difference between the Kentucky game being manageable as opposed to the runaway everyone is expecting it to be.

Playing their second game in less than 24 hours, there were times when St. John’s looked fatigued. At other times, the Red Storm looked like one of the more experienced teams in the nation. At the end, it all came down to two free throws.

Sent to the line with 2.3 seconds remaining in regulation and a chance to win the game for St. John’s, Nurideen Lindsey missed both foul shots, and the ensuing rebound attempt by the Red Storm was unsuccessful as No. 18 Texas A&M (3-1) escaped Madison Square Garden with a hard-fought 58-57 win.

For the Red Storm, it is another experience that will serve them well throughout the season, which resumes this Tuesday at Carnesecca Arena against St. Francis College.

“Our players did an admirable job of scratching and clawing to get back and have a lead,” said St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin. “Both games, we couldn’t put away an opponent with something we can control.”

D’Angelo Harrison tied Lindsey for the team scoring lead with 12 points, while Moe Harkless and Phil Greene added ten points each.

Ray Turner paced the Aggies with 16 points, while Elston Turner (no relation) hit the game-winning shot with six seconds left in regulation. The Aggies only attempted three free throws to the 38 taken by St. John’s, winning the game, despite such a massive disparity.

“I really liked our team’s character,” Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said after the game. “They were really disappointed with the way they played last night. We threw the first punch, and that’s how we want to play.”

While St. John’s regroups and carries on with this young season, we’ll recap the highlights and turning points of tonight’s contest with our “Lasting Impressions.”

Lasting Impressions
– First and foremost, tonight’s key stat was the 38-3 disparity in free throw attempts that favored St. John’s. The Red Storm defense did a much better job of holding their own against the Aggies’ big men, despite being outscored 38-18 in the paint.

– As a whole, Nurideen Lindsey’s teammates expect him to bounce back after missing those two last-second free throws. Both Phil Greene and D’Angelo Harrison alluded to Lindsey carrying the team when they met the media after the game, and both expect the point guard to have a breakout season.

– The Texas A&M bench proved to make a difference in tonight’s game, as some may have expected given its depth and size advantage in contrast to St. John’s. Freshman point guard Jamal Branch contributed seven points and five rebounds, while forward Kourtney Roberson pulled down 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive glass.

– Finally, tonight’s game ball goes to the St. John’s defense. The Red Storm forced an Aggie team that came into the game shooting 54 percent from the field to abandon their high percentage shot selection, as Texas A&M shot an uncharacteristic 43 percent (26-for-60) from the field. The performance was marked by numerous possessions in which the Aggies looked to bury St. John’s, but were unable to.