St. John's holds on for win after being tested by Monmouth
Julian Champagnie #2 of the St. John's Red Storm grabs the ball away from Shavar Reynolds #33 of the Monmouth Hawks during a men's basketball game at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, New York on Thursday, Dec 9, 2021. NCAA Basketball between the Monmouth Hawks and the St. John's Red Storm. Credit: Steven Ryan
St. John’s is trying to stack up the wins and prepare for the big clashes in the Big East. And if the Red Storm happen to get tested in this out-of-conference phase of the schedule, well, maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.
Monmouth arrived at Carnesecca Arena with the look of a team that could provide a test Thursday night. The Hawks, from the MAAC, owned seven straight wins after an opening loss and a nation-leading five road wins, including an eye-opening victory at Cincinnati. They featured four grad-student starters averaging double digits in scoring.
The Red Storm have been searching for some consistency in their early play. They’re still searching. They were tested. But they passed — barely — holding on for an 88-83 win in game six of an eight-game homestand and the opener of a three-game run in the six-team Gotham Classic.
Posh Alexander paced five double-figure scorers with 21 points. Julian Champagnie scored 16 to leave him four short of 1,000 in his career. Dylan Addae-Wusu scored five of his 11 points in the final 1:22. So St. John’s bottom line is up to 7-2.
"I think it’s good that we’re playing good teams and they’re giving us great tests," Alexander said. "When we get into the Big East, there are a lot of good teams. We’re going to have to compete every night. I feel like these are great tests that we’re getting."
The Red Storm’s advantage reached 14 approaching the midpoint of the second half. But the Hawks, who were led by Shavar Reynolds Jr.’s 25 points, chipped it down to six.
Alexander drove, scored, got fouled and turned it into a three-point play for a nine-point lead at the 3:58 mark. The lead went to 11, then shrunk to 81-75 on a three-pointer by Marcus McClary with 2:33 left. Addae-Wusu made two free throws with 1:22 left, but Walker Miller canned a three-pointer 10 seconds later to make it 83-78.
Addae-Wusu committed an offensive foul with one minute to go, and after the Red Storm’s Montez Mathis fouled George Papas behind the three-point arc, Papas hit all three free throws. That made it 83-81 with 53.1 seconds remaining.
Addae-Wusu drove for two, but Reynolds hit a layup. Monmouth had to foul and Addae-Wusu hit one of two with 14.3 seconds left. The rebound went off Monmouth’s Nikkei Rutty and out of bounds thanks to Alexander, who clinched it with two free throws with eight seconds left.
