St. John’s Pushes Past Colgate, 82-64

Sunday, December 12

Queens, N.Y. (Carnesecca Arena)

12 p.m.

St. John's University

8-2

Colgate

4-7

Team	1	2	F
Colgate	35	29	64
St. John's	46	36	82

12/12/2021 3:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Junior wing Julian Champagnie scores his 1,000th career point in the victory

QUEENS, N.Y. – For weeks, St. John's Head Coach Mike Anderson has stressed the need for his bench to increase its production. On the coach's 62nd birthday, the Red Storm's reserves delivered, chipping in 34 points in an 82-64 win over Colgate at Carnesecca Arena.

"Our bench came to play," said Anderson. "Every guy that came off the bench contributed in a great way."

The win, which came in the Red Storm's second game of the Gotham Classic, improved the Red Storm to 8-2 on the season. Colgate, which scored 100 points earlier this year against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, fell to 4-7. St. John's will look to capture a Gotham Classic title on Saturday against Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden.

Julian Champagnie led the way for the Red Storm, scoring 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including a 5-for-7 effort from deep. The junior, who during the first half became the 52nd player in St. John's history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark, also added six rebounds.

Reigning BIG EAST Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year Posh Alexander stuffed the stat sheet against Colgate, netting 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting while adding seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Freshman guard Rafael Pinzon put forth his best individual effort as a Johnnie, posting 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and three assists in just 17 minutes of action. The Arecibo, Puerto Rico, native went a perfect 4-for-4 from inside the 3-point arc.

Dylan Addae-Wusu logged 10 points to finish in double figures for the fourth straight game.

Aaron Wheeler and Stef Smith added seven points apiece while O'Mar Stanley chipped in six points off the bench.

As a team, St. John's shot 47.3 percent from the field and connected on 40.0 percent of its 3-point attempts (10-for-25). The Red Storm committed a season-low six turnovers, only one of which occurred in the first half, and came away with 10 steals on the defensive end.

The Johnnies got off to a slow start in the opening half, hitting just two of their first 11 field goal attempts while Jack Ferguson hit a pair of early treys to give Colgate a 12-6 lead with 14:14 to go. Ferguson finished with seven made 3-pointers and a game-high 23 points for the Raiders.

Trailing 15-11 a few minutes later, St. John's uncorked an 11-0 burst as part of a larger 21-6 run to open a 14-point edge, 35-21, with five and a half minutes left in the half. The run was fueled by the Red Storm bench with 17 of those 21 points coming from reserves. Wheeler netted seven, Stanley scored six and Smith tallied five after Pinzon kicked off the run with a midrange jumper.

Leading by 11, 46-35, at the break, St. John's scored nine of the second half's first 12 points to quickly pull ahead by 17 on Champagnie's fifth triple of the day.

The Red Storm continued to add onto its lead over the remainder of the contest, pulling ahead by as many as 23 with three minutes to go.

The Johnnies will close non-conference play on Saturday against former BIG EAST foe Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. on FS1. Since 2014-15, St. John's is 7-0 against former BIG EAST foes that have since left the league.