Rolling Red Storm Blow Out Wagner, 73-58

After taking a week long break between games, the Red Storm came out sluggish against the Wagner Seakhawks. However, a strong second half powered St. John’s past Wagner 73-58. This is the first time St. John’s has been 10-0 since the 1982-83 season.

First Half

St. John’s played down to the level of their competition in the first half going into the break up 29-28.

Coach Mullin shrank the rotation back to 7 players for for the first half, electing not to play Greg Williams, Jr. or the other freshmen after starting Williams start against Princeton.

Wagner came into the game averaging over 13 offensive rebounds per game and had some success in that regard against St. John’s. Wagner grabbed 5 offensive boards in the first half, 3 of which came from AJ Sumbry.

Wendell Cruz

Offensively, St. John’s settled for several tough shots on the offensive end with too many shots late in the shot-clock and notable other ill-advised looks. Consequently, the Red Storm went 10 of 26 from the field collectively.

Despite the quantity of tough looks from St. John’s, Shamorie Ponds had a field day as a play-maker creating 5 of the teams 8 first-half assists to go along with his 8 points off of 4 shots.

Second Half

The Red Storm came out hot in the second half scoring 12 points off of 4 of 6 shooting prior to the U16 Media Timeout.

From there, the Red Storm went through a prolonged stretch of outmatching the Seahawks. Aside from the Seahawks collecting 7 more offensive rebounds, the Red Storm looked like a team that was supposed to outmatch Wagner.

Marvin Clark II was particularly efficient in the second half, scoring 10 points off 3 of 4 from the field and 2 of 3 from deep.

Wendell Cruz

Ponds continued his quality play-making, almost getting a double-double in the second half alone with 9 and 8 more points. Ponds finished the game 1 Rebound shy of a triple-double.

After St. John’s built a seemingly insurmountable lead, Coach Mullin did put Williams, Josh Roberts, and Marcellus Earlington to finish out the game. Both Williams and Roberts got to the line where Williams converted both opportunities and Roberts did not convert either.

Once the freshmen got a few minutes of play, the clock struck 0:00 with St. John’s defeating Wagner, 73-58.

St. John’s Red Storm

Shamorie Ponds: 16 Points (4/7 FG, 2/2 3PT), 9 Rebounds, 14 Assists, 1 Turnover

LJ Figueroa: 19 Points (8/13 FG, 3/6 3PT), 3 Rebounds

Marvin Clark II: 14 Points (4/7 FG, 3/6 3PT), 7 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 3 Turnovers

Wagner Seahawks

Romone Saunders: 17 Points (5/12 FG, 2/6 3PT), 7 Rebounds, 2 Assists

Chase Freeman: 8 Points (3/8 FG, 2/6 3PT), 3 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 2 Turnovers