New York, NY (Dec. 14) - Junior forward Willie Shaw and freshman guard Elijah Ingram each scored 17 points to lead the St. John's Men's Basketball team to an 84-59 win over Hofstra on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The win improves the Red Storm's record to 5-0 on the season, while the Pride drops its third straight to slip to 1-5.

St. John's took control of the game early with an 18-0 first half run. After a jumper from Hofstra's Woody Souffrant gave the Pride an 8-6 lead, the Red Storm rattled off the next 18 points to take a commanding 24-8 lead with 10:20 to play in the opening half.

After St. John's extended its lead to 29-10, Hofstra went on a 10-2 run to pull within 31-20 on a three-pointer from Souffrant with 3:25 left in the half. However, the Red Storm quickly responded with a 9-0 run, capped off by a conventional three-point play from Shaw, to pull ahead 40-20. A tip-in by Hofstra sophomore forward Kenny Adeleke at the first-half buzzer made the score 40-22 at intermission.

The Red Storm scored the first five points of the second half to take a 45-22 advantage, and the lead never got lower than 19 the rest of the way.

Joining Shaw and Ingram in double figures for St. John's were senior guard Marcus Hatten, who had 15, and junior forward Kyle Cuffe, who had a double-double with 15 points and 12 boards.

Souffrant led Hofstra with 15 points, including a career-high four three-pointers, matching the total he had during his entire freshman season a year ago. Adeleke added 13 points and eight rebounds, while freshman forward Aurimas Kieza had 12 points and seven rebounds in his Hofstra debut. Kieza missed the first five games while serving an NCAA suspension for participating on a club team in his native Lithuania prior to coming to the United States for his senior year of high school.

Kieza's eligibility gave the Pride eight scholarship players in the St. John's game, up from seven in its previous game (a loss to Monmouth on Dec. 7), but still a long way from the 13 it expected to have coming into the season. The Pride was still without senior guard Rick Apodaca and sophomore center Wendell Gibson, who are still in the middle of their 14-game suspensions for violation of university policy. In addition, senior forwards Danny Walker (ankle) and Osei Millar (knee) were both out with injuries, while sophomore forward Chris McRae left the team two games into the season. Millar is projected to be out for 2-3 weeks, while Walker is out at least until January and will likely be redshirted.

Hofstra won the battle of the boards for the sixth time in six games this season, outrebounding the Red Storm 46-43. Sophomore swingman Michael Radziejewski had a career-high 11 rebounds, marking the first time this season that someone other than Adeleke has led Hofstra in rebounding.

The Pride will next be in action when it travels to Stony Brook on Saturday, Dec. 21 for a 1 p.m. contest.