Ponds Delivers, St. John's Stuns No. 4 Duke
The stage in Madison Square Garden was all too familiar for Coach Chris Mullin. His team, playing with essentially a six-man rotation, was hanging tough against a top 25 team and in position to pick up a statement win amid a season of several disappointments.
After watching a double-digit lead get sliced to one, Mullin called on his best player in the final minute for another score to create some breathing room. Shamorie Ponds didn’t hesitate.
An inbounds play set Ponds to receive the ball directly in front the St. John’s bench and the 6-foot-1 scorer elevated for 3, draining a bomb that ignited a roar inside the sold-out arena and sparked a breakthrough finish the Johnnies failed to produce all season.
“It was probably the biggest play of the game, no question,” Mullin said of the basket that put his team up 77-73 with 40 seconds left. “It’s one of the plays that we run from baseline out of bounds. Much like breaking the press, we want the ball in his hands. Sometimes he doesn’t get it if they double him, but I thought we ran that to perfection.
“Shamorie worked his way for the shot, and it was the biggest shot of the [day], no question. Sometimes Shamorie does that early in the game, you don’t like that shot, but at five seconds you just have to get a good look.”
For St. John’s, it was a play that culminated one of the team’s best efforts of the season — an odd regular occurrence when taking on ranked opponents. This time the Red Storm survived, edging the Blue Devils 81-77. Ponds was dominant down the stretch, scoring 24 in the second half en route to his 33-point night, his second straight game notching over 30 points.
“I think we had better shot selection for the most part,” said Mullin, discussing similarities between the win and recent close losses. “We still made mistakes. We were up four and still left a shooter open in transition. [There was] miscommunication but it didn’t carry over to the next play. We got back and made something positive happen.
Like I said, it felt like all those other games, it really did. It feels much better to come out on top, but it really wasn’t that different to me. I’ve been telling you guys, you think I’m crazy, but we’ve been right there in all of these games.”
Bashir Ahmed had one of his best games, too, scoring 19 points on just 10 shots, playing in control and decisive on drives. Tariq Owens, tasked with slowing down Marvin Bagley III, did his job on both ends while adding 17 points to the cause.
The win ends an 11-game losing streak — all in the Big East — and places St. John’s at 11-2 in non-conference play. The Johnnies are currently on the tail-end of a three-game stretch against three of the top 6 ranked teams in the country. They’ll finish the stretch on Tuesday, traveling to Philadelphia to face No. 1 Villanova.
Mullin was thankful the calendar flipped from January, a month St. John’s has gone winless twice in three years under Mullin. Ponds said the team needed a win to break the ice after chipping away for so long.
And while a win against anyone would have sufficed, an upset against Duke has restored the mojo in Queens heading into the final stretch of the season. “It was great for us,” Ponds said, “our confidence is at an all-time.”
