St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Niagara
Niagara Falls To Red Storm, 72-65
1/3/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan 3, 2004
NEW YORK (AP) - Elijah Ingram scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half to lead St. John's to a 72-65 victory over Niagara on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, the Red Storm's sixth straight over the Purple Eagles and 14th in 15 meetings.
Ingram, a sophomore guard and St. John's leading scorer with a 13.1 average, was playing his third game with a protective face mask after breaking his nose against Georgia Tech on Dec. 21.
He was a combined 6-for-23 in the games against Penn and Holy Cross, but he returned to form against Niagara, going 8-for-14 from the field with four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Kyle Cuffe added 17 points for the Red Storm (4-6), who improved to 2-2 under interim coach Kevin Clark, who replaced the fired Mike Jarvis on Dec. 19.
Juan Mendez had 20 points, his sixth straight game with at least 20, and grabbed 16 rebounds for Niagara (7-3), which lost for the first time on the road this season in five games. The Purple Eagles finished with a 49-38 advantage on the boards, but they committed 17 turnovers which led to 22 points by St. John's.
Ingram had four points in a 8-0 run that brought the Red Storm into a tie at 46 with 11:06 to play. His 3-pointer with 8:19 left gave St. John's a 51-50 lead, and after Lorenzo Miles made one free throw to tie the game, Ingram gave the Red Storm the lead for good with 6:12 to play.
St. John's closed the game by going 8-for-9 from the free-throw line over the final 1:16, a far cry from Niagara's 13-for-23 effort from the line for the game.
St. John's freshman Darryll Hill had nine points on 1-for-11 shooting and six assists.
