St. John’s impressive in blowout win over Albany, 85-57.

With Mustapha Heron out, the Johnnies blow out the Albany Great Danes 85-57 with strong contributions from everyone.

In the first half, Julian Champagnie and a stingy St. John’s defense got the Red Storm out to the races. With Mustapha Heron out with an ankle injury, Champagnie was the early aggressor for the Johnnies. Julian put up 12 of the first 16 points for St. John’s. When Albany adjusted, the rest of the team picked it up and Champagnie did not have to force anything. Julian finished the half with those 12 points on 5 of 6 from the field and converted his only attempts from three.

While Champagnie’s offensive production helped get other guys going offensively, nobody on defense needed any help getting locked in. St. John’s held the Great Danes without any points for an 11-minutes stretch. While preventing points is great, turning those stops into points is better. The Johnnies did so by forcing 12 turnovers and converting those turnovers into 15 points.

Wendell Cruz

Despite the success on both ends of the floor, Malachi de Sousa kept Albany competitive, or some semblance thereof, going into the half. De Sousa had 12 points off of 5 of 6 from the floor and 2 of 3 from deep to go along with a rebound and an assist before the break.

Despite de Sousa’s efforts, the Johnnies went into the half up 35-22.

After the break, local garbage man, Marcellus Earlington, did what he does best: turning trash in treasure. Earlington stole 4 offensive rebounds, which helped him add 12 second half points (6/6 FG).

Wendell Cruz

Earlington helped St. John’s push their lead to 20 points. The concern, at that point, was whether St. John’s would close out the rest of the game, or let Albany back into it like St. John’s did just over a week ago against Brown.

To the comfort of St. John’s fans, the Johnnies did not take the foot off the gas. After his quality performance against Brown, Greg Williams, Jr. followed his permanence up with a quality half at at both ends of the floor. Williams led the team in +/- for the game with a +24, and scored all of his 11 points in the second half to extend the lead over Albany.

The walk-ons got to play almost the full final two minutes, and Thomas O’Connell could not get his look to drop, but the Johnnies picked up another victory over Albany, 85-57.

Get the coffee pot ready. The Red Storm will be playing a late one, taking on the Arizona Wildcats in the home area of the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at 10:00 PM.

St. John’s Red Storm

Marcellus Earlington: 16 points (8/10 FG), 9 rebounds, 1 assist

Julian Champagnie: 14 points (6/8 FG, 1/2 3PT), 6 rebounds, 1 turnover

Greg Williams, Jr.: 11 points (4/7 FG, 3/5 3PT), 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers

Albany Great Danes

Malachi de Sousa: 22 points (8/11 FG, 2/4 3PT), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turnovers

Antonio Rizzuto: 12 points (4/8 FG, 2/5 3PT), 1 rebound, 2 turnovers