St. John’s jumped out to an early lead being carried by a tenacious Sean Evans. Evans created extra possessions and scored early and often against St. Bonaventure’s Andrew Nicholson. Just when it looked like it might be an early blowout, the beast they call Nicholson awoke and went on a tear bouncing the Bonnies back to within 1, 16-17. The two teams went back and forth as St. John’s lead never exceeded 6 points as they took a 2 point lead into halftime.

St. John’s came out of the gate sluggish to start the 2nd half which put knots into every Redstorm fan’s stomach. Midway through the 2nd half the score was tied at 44 a piece. This may have been the turning point of the game as St. Bonaventure went to it’s bench taking out Nicholson and St. John’s capitalized. St. John’s went up 46-44 then DJ Kennedy hit a big 3 and Paris Horne followed that with a fast break reverse jam to give the Redstorm a 51-44 lead going on a 7-0 run.

The Bonnies were struggling from beyond the arc for most of the day, which frustrated most of their fans to no end. With the score 67-62 with 3 minutes to play in the game, the Bonnies prayers were answered as Chris Matthews drained a 3 pointer. After that possession Dwight Hardy had the ball stolen from him and Justin Burrell committed a hard foul to prevent the Bonnies from scoring. However the indicated that the foul was intentional which allowed the Bonnies to get the ball back. After Eleby sank 1 of 2 free throws the Bonnies inbounded the ball as Dele Coker committed a unecessary foul which resulted in Nicholson nailing 2 free throws to give the Bonnies a 68-67 lead with 16 seconds left in the game.

Seemingly before the radio announcers even knew what happened Boothe was flying down the court coast to coast and was fouled to go to the line with 6 seconds left. He made both free throws to take back the lead 69-68. St. Bonaventure called a timeout and drew up a play which game them a 3 point look but it was unsuccessful as St. John’s hung on for the win.

Not being able to see this game allows a lot to be left up to the imagination of how well or poor either team played. Here are some things you can walk away from this game with:

Positive: The team is 10 deep right now without Mason and Thomas. It’s nice to know if we need contributors off the bench we can have some. All the new guys played well when they came into the game. Omari, Stith, Brownlee, and Hardy all logged solid minutes and made contributions when they came into the game.

Negative: We may be too quick to yank players out of the game and go to our depth too quickly. Just because we have depth doesn’t mean you have to over use it. You can certainly give everyone enough minutes but just not all at once. This isn’t hockey the Kennedy/Horne/Evans line change in favor of Hardy/Lawrence/Brownlee isn’t going to work. We need to find different combinations to keep returning and incoming talent blended on the court.

Positive: Outside shooting doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore for this team. Kennedy and Horne have really been torching the nets.

Negative: We’re settling for way too many jumpshots when we could be getting into the lane. Our athleticism is still our strength we need to use it and the open jumpers will be there.

Positive: We’re winning ball games without Justin Burrell being a factor.

Negative: Justin Burrell isn’t being a factor. We’re gonna need him to play better in the future.

Positive: We won on the road! We won a close game!

Negative: We need to be beating the St. Bonaventure’s of the world handily not by 1 point.

Now lets take a look at the Keys to Victory from our pregame column Calm Before the Storm:

Make them Run: Well St. John’s ran at times but when you allow your opponent to make over 50% of their shots its harder to run off of made baskets. St. John’s did have success pushing the ball though. The big run in the 2nd half was sparked by turnovers and fast break points and Malik Boothe’s pushing the ball in the final seconds led to the game winning free throws.

Grade: B-

Stay Excited… But In Control: There were a few times in this game where St. John’s looked to do something with the ball but turned it over. Burrell backed down Nicholson until he pulled the chair and Burrell traveled. Kennedy and Horne both missed dunks. A few fast breaks were ruined because passes weren’t handled properly. On the other end of the floor Boothe and Burrell were in foul trouble while Dele Coker committed a bad body foul which almost cost St. John’s the game.

Grade: C

More Effective Minutes: The force (bench) was strong! Hardy and Brownlee combine for 6-9 shooting and 2-4 from beyond the arc. Omari Lawrence seemed to do a little bit of everything when he was in especially during crunch time. St. John’s got big minutes from the freshman. Also Malik Stith settled in nicely getting 3 assists in only 10 min of play. He also had a big time and 1 play which really sparked the team.

Grade: A

Defend the Post Intelligently: Perhaps this should have been mentioned twice because then the Redstorm might have listened. Andrew Nicholson did what he wanted, when he wanted. We committed silly fouls on top of letting them score at will.

Grade: C-

Rebounds: Sort of a roller coaster throughout the game. We were dominating early on especially on the offensive end of the ball but the aggressive nature on the boards seemed to have faded as the night went on. Perhaps foul trouble contributed or the Bonnies out hustled the Redstorm to those 50/50 balls.

Grade: C

Overall: C+