St. John's performs better in victory over Fordham
Joel Soriano of St. John's blocks a shot attempt in the first half by Will Richardson of Fordham at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
St. John’s was looking to check a lot of boxes on Saturday when it faced Fordham at the Garden in its final tune-up before Big East play begins. A bunch definitely got checked. Others seemed open to interpretation.
Led by Joel Soriano’s 20 points and 10 rebounds, the Red Storm led wire-to-wire in posting a 77-55 Holiday Festival victory over the Rams before 12,720. They got back in the win column after last weekend’s disappointing loss to Boston College and got a taste of winning at the Garden that they will need with six more big games and the conference tournament scheduled to be played on that floor. They also made some much-needed strides with their defense, answering coach Rick Pitino’s call for more accountability.
The remaining box? Turning in a performance that would win a Big East game. The answer on that one is less definitive.
St. John’s (7-3) did a lot right. It held Fordham (5-6) to 28% shooting from the floor, including 2-for-18 on three-point attempts, forced 21 turnovers and converted them into 17 points, recorded 20 assists on 30 baskets and built a 45-39 rebounding edge.
But the Red Storm also committed 22 fouls and the Rams went 23-for-26 from the free-throw line. And St. John's missed eight free throws, including the front end of three one-and-ones.
Asked if his team would have won a conference game with this performance, Pitino gave a qualified answer when he said, “Take away the fouling, yes, but you’ve got to take away the fouling.
“Look, let's face it, any time you hold the team to 25% shooting, 11% from the three, but then they shoot 23-for-26 from the line . . . If we don’t take care of the basketball and play much better defense without fouling, Xavier is going to beat us,” he added.
“Definitely defensively” was how Soriano initially answered the same question. “And offensively we moved the ball well. They threw a lot of defensive schemes at us and we took care of the ball in the halfcourt, played together and looked for open guys. There were probably a little bit more shots we had to make, but I think this performance definitely would win in the Big East.”
St. John’s will face Xavier on Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena before taking on defending national champion and No. 5-ranked Connecticut on Saturday night in Hartford.
“In the Big East, every given night is going to be a game, so we have to be prepared, come in with a good mind and not sleep on any team,” Soriano said.
Chris Ledlum had 11 points and Daniss Jenkins added six points and eight assists for St. John’s, which had 11 of 12 players score as Pitino substituted liberally. Sean Conway was returned to the starting lineup — for the first time since the season opener — and Jordan Dingle came off the bench because Pitino said he was looking for more movement away from the ball. Conway had six points and two steals.
St. John’s raced out to leads of 11-2 and 22-8. Fordham got the margin to eight once in the first minute of the second half.
Pitino has made team defense a focal point since he called the team’s halfcourt approach against BC “abominable.”
He said his message to the team was: “If you’re going to rely on your offense, you’re going to finish dead last in the Big East. So we’ve got to do something about our defense. You’re all capable of doing it.”
He got the response he was looking for.
“Tonight our rotations were good, we got very aggressive on pick-and-rolls, we were very good cutting off the baseline,” he said. “We’ve taken baby steps tonight and that’s what I wanted to see.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
