St. John's wakes up in second half, beats D-II Franklin Pierce

With the way the NIT Season Tip-Off is set up these days, the first couple of rounds call to mind that cliche: It's not whether you win or lose . . .

But a loss sure would have been embarrassing.

St. John's needed a 21-0 blitz at the start of the second half to beat Division II opponent Franklin Pierce, 94-81, Monday night at Carnesecca Arena.

D'Angelo Harrison scored 20 of his 31 points after halftime as his team avoided a result that would have raised eyebrows all over the country. Rysheed Jordan finished with 19 points and Phil Greene IV had 18. Harrison also had 17 rebounds.

The Red Storm did endure a heck of a scare, trailing 50-43 at intermission in the opener of a nontraditional tournament, in which the opening rounds are just showcases and have no bearing on the championship. St. John's, in fact, already is scheduled to play Minnesota in a semifinal at Madison Square Garden a week from Wednesday.

"They came ready to play, and we weren't. It's as simple as that," Harrison said. "You've got to fix it."

When he was asked how they "fixed it," he referred to Ryen Vilmont's uniform number, saying: "We came together as a group. We said, '32 will not score.' It became really simple. He had 21 in the first half, and we slowed him down."

Franklin Pierce, coming off wins against LIU Post and New York Tech in Post's Tip-Off Tournament, was one of two Division II teams invited to flesh out the field of 12. The obvious point is, of course, that, with all due respect, St. John's wants no part of the postseason NIT. As Harrison told SNY on media day: "If we don't make the NCAA Tournament, it's going to be a complete failure of a year. Hands down."

He reiterated that feeling after a 19-point win over NJIT on Friday: "I just want to have the best season since we've been here."

In the first half Monday night, though, the mind-set involved mostly just being awed by Vilmont. He shot 8-for-9 from the field, including 5-for-6 on three-pointers. Vilmont, who finished with 29 points, did not get a second-half point until he made a free throw with 3:38 left.

The first two minutes of the second half showed that Storm coach Steve Lavin maybe had made a few subtle suggestions about defensive intensity.

Of the 21-0 run, Harrison said: "That's St. John's basketball at its best right there. When we're in transition, it's hard to guard us."

Said Lavin, "In the first half, we allowed them to get the hot hand as a team and once you allow someone to come in on your home court and establish some confidence and a belief that they can win, you find yourself in a dogfight."

Of the second half, Lavin said, "That looked like the team we can become."