St. John’s Clobbers Columbia, 82-63

Wednesday, November 20

Queens, N.Y. (Carnesecca Arena)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

4-1

Columbia

1-4

Columbia

St. John's

11/20/2019 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Three Johnnies finish in double figures as Red Storm rebounds against the Lions

QUEENS, N.Y. (Nov. 20, 2019) – The St. John's men's basketball team used a balanced scoring effort and tenacious defense to drop Columbia, 82-63, at Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday night.

Mustapha Heron led all St. John's scorers with 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting. The senior guard hit two of his three tries from downtown, improving his three-point field goal percentage to 65.0 percent on the year (13-of-20).

Playing just his second game as a member of the Red Storm, Rasheem Dunn posted all 14 of his points in the first half in addition to leading the team with three assists and three steals.

Freshman wing Julian Champagnie put forth another consistent performance for the Johnnies, finishing with a season-high 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes of action. In five collegiate appearances, the Brooklyn native has yet to record fewer than eight points or six rebounds in any one contest.

David Caraher and LJ Figueroa narrowly missed making it five in double figures for St. John's, finishing with nine points apiece.

The sophomore trio of Josh Roberts, Marcellus Earlington and Greg Williams Jr. made its presence felt on Wednesday night. Roberts pulled down double-digit rebounds for the second straight game, grabbing 11 boards in addition to blocking three shots. Earlington tallied eight points on 4-of-7 shooting and collected eight rebounds in only 16 minutes of action. After going scoreless in his last two outings, Williams logged five points and two assists.

As a team, the Red Storm shot 43.1 percent from the floor, including a 7-for-15 (46.7%) showing from three-point range.

After coughing up a season-high 16 turnovers on Saturday against Vermont, the Red Storm recorded just eight miscues against the Lions. On the other side of that coin, the Johnnies turned 18 Columbia turnovers, 10 of which came off steals, into 23 points. St. John's has now reached double digits in steals three times in its first five outing.

With the game tied at four after three minutes of action, the Red Storm ripped off an 11-0 run to take a sizeable lead early, holding the Lions without a point for nearly six minutes.

Shortly thereafter, the Red Storm used another run, this time of the 8-0 variety to take a 17-point advantage, 25-8, near the midway mark of the half. Dunn scored the final five points of the spurt for the Johnnies after Caraher kicked things off with a three.

Columbia pulled within 11 before another 7-0 run put the Red Storm ahead by 18, 36-18, with five minutes to go in the period.

Trailing by 22, 49-27, at the break, Columbia used an early 7-0 spurt to pull within 15 and force a St. John's timeout 17:20 to play. The Red Storm quickly responded out of the stoppage with nine unanswered of its own, taking its largest lead of the game to that point, 62-38.

The Red Storm led by as many as 30 with just under nine minutes remaining in the second half before Columbia narrowed the deficit down the stretch.

This coming weekend, the Johnnies will play their first games this season away from the friendly confines of Carnesecca Arena, traveling to Mohegan Sun for the Air Force Reserve Tip-Off Tournament presented by Citi. The Red Storm will kick things off with an NCAA Tournament rematch against Arizona State on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The following day, the Johnnies will square off against either No. 7 Virginia or UMass.