It’s one thing to get mocked for a schedule full of cupcakes. It’s another to lose to one of them.
St. John’s seemed to learn its lesson from Bowling Green, the lowly MAC opponent that nearly stunned the Johnnies a few weeks ago. Following an uneven performance in the Legends Classic last week in Brooklyn, the Red Storm didn’t take Maryland Eastern Shore lightly.
“As you see, Oregon lost to [Texas Southern], a team they shouldn’t lose to, a lot of people say,” wing Mustapha Heron said. “It’s basketball, on any given night there’s talented players all over the country.
“It shows you got to be ready to come out and play against anybody. It’s something we look at and we say let’s not let it happen to us pretty much.”
St. John’s started fast, playing with intensity and purpose, and cruised to an 85-64 victory over the MEAC program on Tuesday night at Carnesecca Arena. The win enabled the Johnnies to improve to 6-0 for the first time in eight years. They will aim for their first 7-0 start since Felipe Lopez’s freshman year (1994-95) on Saturday against Georgia Tech in Miami.
Junior college transfer LJ Figueroa continued his impressive start, notching 25 points, 13 rebounds and five steals, and Heron rebounded from a poor shooting performance the last time out to add 20 points and nine rebounds. Mikey Dixon contributed 14 points and four assists off the bench, and Shamorie Ponds, preferring to be a playmaker rather than a scorer, had six assists, six rebounds and attempted a season-low five shots.
St. John’s opened with a 9-0 run and the lead never fell under five the rest of the evening. It was 52-28 at the half, fueled by a Figueroa-led 15-2 run in which he connected on three 3-pointers. The halftime stats were pretty: 52 percent shooting, 13 assists on 18 made field goals, and 11-of-21 shooting from 3-point range against the Hawks (1-6), rated as the No. 346 team in the country out of 353 by the analytics-based website KenPom.com.
There was some slippage in the second half — coach Chris Mullin said he felt St. John’s got lackadaisical on the defensive end in allowing the Hawks to shoot 50 percent from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes — and the lead, as large as 28 at one point, was whittled to 16. But Heron woke up the comatose crowd with a left-handed slam over forward Tyler Jones while getting fouled, restoring order.
After the meeting with Georgia Tech, the schedule will be soft until Big East play starts. The highest-rated opponent, according to KenPom, is 184th-ranked Princeton in the Holiday Festival on Dec. 9. The Johnnies also have games against Wagner (260), Mount St. Mary’s (338) and Sacred Heart (318) in what should be one easy victory after another. An undefeated record entering the Big East opener at Seton Hall on Dec. 29 is a real possibility, thanks to the schedule.
“We’ve been thinking about that since the season started,” Heron said.
In many ways, the next month is more about holding serve, avoiding a bad loss that could harm the team’s NCAA Tournament résumé. With that in mind, Tuesday was a positive start to this stretch of lightweights, but Mullin said he doesn’t expect lack of focus to be an issue.
“We’ve lost enough games the last few years that I don’t think this group will [have that problem]” he said. “It’s about staying in the moment.”