Dec. 22, 2006

Box Score

QUEENS, NY - It took St. John's more than 15 minutes of basketball to claim its first lead, but its depth and talent paid off with a decisive second half and the Red Storm defeated New Jersey Institute of Technology, 68-50, in men's basketball Thursday night.

St. John's junior Avery Patterson led all scorers with 23 points, while Anthony Mason, Jr., who scored his team's first nine points, finished with 11 for the Red Storm, now 7-3 on the year. Lamont Hamilton added 10 points--all in the second half.

NJIT was led by Kraig Peters, who scored 14 points and made 3 steals, and Clayton Barker, who had 12 points and a game-high 4 steals. Barker got 10 of his points in the second half, before fouling out with 2:23 left.

Sophomore Nesho Milosevic came off the bench for a game-high 10 rebounds and added 9 points for the Highlanders.

Playing on the St. John's campus in Carnesecca Arena, the Highlanders, who are in their first year competing at the Division I level, took on one of the storied programs in college basketball. St. John's is the seventh-winningest team in college basketball history, with 1,643 wins in 99 seasons. St. John's has 26 NCAA Tournament appearances, plus 15 trips to at least the semifinals of the NIT, which it has won five times.

Against that background, the Highlanders responded by scoring the first basket of the game, a three-pointer by Peters 21 seconds into the game. When Peters hit another three with 11:58 left in the half, NJIT took what would be its biggest lead of the game, 14-6.

The Highlanders remained on top until Patterson nailed his second three-pointer in a span of 38 seconds, pushing the Red Storm into its first lead, 18-16, with 4:48 left in the half. St. John's never trailed again.

Patterson drained threes on his next two shots, giving St. John's a 24-16 lead with 3:15 left in the half. NJIT, which was stuck on 16 points for 7:16 and scored just six points over the last 11:53 of the half, pulled back closer with the final four points of the half to trail at the break, 24-20.

Patterson, with 11 points, was the only double-figure scorer for either team at halftime. Mason had 9 points for St. John's, while Peters' 8 points paced NJIT.

The Red Storm, which started the first half slowly, picked up 12 points in the first 4:28 of the second half to expand its four-point halftime advantage to 36-24 on the 6-10, 255-pound Hamilton's power layup with 15:32 left.

Facing the home team's first knockout bid of the game, the Highlanders fought back with seven unanswered points--five by Barker--and closed to within five, 36-31, on Milosevic's layup at the 13:41 mark.

St. John's freshman Larry Wright then hit his only two baskets--a pair of three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, giving his team another double-digit lead, 42-31, with 12:17 left. The Red Storm led by at least 10 the rest of the way.

NJIT is off until December 29, when it opens play in the UCF Holiday Classic, hosted by Central Florida in Orlando. The Highlanders will take on the hosts in the first round on December 29 at 7:30 pm. The other two teams in the tournament, which concludes with the consolation and championship games on December 30, are James Madison and Texas-Pan American.