St. John's Smacks Syracuse to Finish Non-Con

Amid a two-game losing streak and an untimely battle with the injury bug, St. John’s pulled off its most impressive feat of the season to close the non-conference portion of the schedule with a thunderous victory over a familiar foe.

With Federico Mussini (infection) and Amar Alibegovic (knee) unavailable, just eight scholarship players took the court for the Red Storm, but they were more than enough as St. John’s traveled upstate and handed Syracuse a 93-60 loss Wednesday in the Carrier Dome in one of the worse losses of coach Jim Boeheim’s career.

Chris Mullin is now 2-0 as a coach against the Orange (7-5) and the Johnnies currently boast a three-game winning streak over the former Big East program, which has lost five of its last eight games, including losses to Georgetown and Connecticut.

St. John’s (6-7) recovered from losses to LIU-Brooklyn and Penn State by picking up its first high-major victory of the season. The Red Storm shot 69 percent from the floor in the second half and 53 percent for the game while dishing out 27 assists.

"I really can't explain it. Especially, after the game we were coming off,” Mullin said after the game. “This was a good experience and it feels good, but last game it didn't feel good, but it was a good experience ... I keep telling [our team] that if they want to be a winning team, that's the process you have to go through."

He added of Syracuse: "When you play against a team like Syracuse with the 2-3 zone, the best in basketball, you can attack it a lot of different ways, but at some point you have to make shots. We did a better job with that."

Shamorie Ponds bounced back from a 3-for-17 outing on Sunday to an impressive 21-point effort while grabbing six rebounds, dishing seven assists and snatching four steals. Bashir Ahmed had 20 points and Malik Ellison continued his strong play with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists.

An early deficit went to the rearview quickly as St. John’s mounted a 19-2 run midway through the opening half to jump ahead 31-16. A 10-point halftime lead was momentarily in jeopardy in the latter half when Syracuse cut it to six, but St. John’s responded with a 6-0 run to provide the comfort in a game that would become as much as a 37-point margin in the second half.

"We've struggled at times, but when you have a young team, unfortunately the losses teach them better. In a game like this they can see what we're talking about,” Mullin said. “Not so much the score, but when you give an effort and [bring] energy and share the ball and do the right things, at some point it works."

For Syracuse, Tyler Lydon, who was a game time decision due to injury, picked up 16 points and 10 rebounds and DaJuan Coleman 10 points and 10 rebounds, but leading scorer Andrew White III was held to two points, which was an emphasis for Mullin heading into the contest.

"One thing I have learned in my short [coaching] stint is that you just never really know with these young guys,” Mullin added. “In the NBA when you play 82 games, there is going to be a few stinkers; that is for sure ... For our team, it's the youth and experience. We've had some really good games already and we've had some stinkers. They don't go out there and do it on purpose. With experience comes consistency and with inexperience comes erratic play."