St. John’s 95
Fairfield 56
There was very little St. John’s could learn, or prove, in last night’s out-of-conference mismatch with Fairfield.
Red Storm coach Mike Jarvis just wanted his team to escape victorious and healthy: They managed both. Now comes the real work.
St. John’s drilled struggling MAAC foe Fairfield 95-56 at Alumni Hall, proving they’re in a different league in every sense.
Now the Red Storm (15-7) – who surpassed last season’s win total and clinched at least a .500 regular-season record – face Big East foes UConn and Miami in matchups that will be far more challenging.
Storm center Donald Emanuel had a career-high 20 points and five rebounds, and forward Anthony Glover added 18 points and six rebounds.
Sharif Fordham, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds, spoke to the team at the morning shoot-around and in the first huddle about clinching a winning record and an NIT berth. But afterward he said the Storm’s sights are higher.
“We’re not satisfied with that,” Fordham said. “We’re never gonna just play for the NIT. We’re going to go for the big thing. We’re going for the NCAA championship.
“When coach recruited the guys, one of the questions he asked was, ‘Are you willing to go the distance for the NCAAs?’ It’s great we got it, but we’re not gonna be satisfied with the NIT.”
An NCAA title is a longshot, but for a night the Storm looked championship caliber. Their 39-point rout was their biggest margin of victory since a 115-70 beating of Niagara on Jan. 4, 1999. And they did this one short-handed.
They played without Abe Keita (stress fracture), Mohamed Diakite (strained back) and Willie Shaw, (left knee). Alpha Bangura, who’d been vexed by his lack of playing time and didn’t travel to Tech while contemplating his role with the team, wants to come back, but Jarvis is still considering his return.
“Now I have to decide what’s best for the team,” Jarvis said. “Everybody can’t just come and go. It doesn’t work that way.
“Sometime next week, [he’ll decide]. There are a lot of people affected by it. I’ve got to see what the pulse of the team is.”
The Storm played just fine short-handed. Their long-armed, athletic defense was almost impenetrable. The Red Storms’ transition offense looked unstoppable, jumping to an 18-3 lead and laughing the rest of the way.
“I don’t think they [Fairfield] quit,” Jarvis said. “It was more a matter of us just dominating the game.”
Walk-on Andre Stanley got his third straight start, and his left-handed layup with 9:38 left pushed the score to 83-36.
Curtis Johnson, who’d made just one appearance, played nine minutes. Little-used walk-on guard Jon Scheiman made just his sixth appearance of the season, with 4:53 left and St. John’s nursing a 40-point lead.
Now St. John’s – 5-5 in the Big East’s East Division – hosts the division-leading Huskies (15-5, 7-2) at the Garden on Saturday night, then plays at the 12th-ranked Hurricanes (20-3, 7-3) Wednesday. They’ll need to win both if they harbor any hopes of winning the division.