LATE RUN CARRIES ST. JOHN'S PAST HOFSTRA

12/20/2009 10:00:00 PM

New York, NY (Dec. 20) - Junior guard Charles Jenkins (Queens, NY) had 24 points, but St. John's closed out the game with an 18-1 run to escape with a 72-60 win over Hofstra in the semifinals of the Aeropostale Holiday Festival on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

D.J. Kennedy had 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Red Storm, while Justin Brownlee had 10 points and 13 rebounds. The loss drops Hofstra's record to 7-4 on the season, while St. John's improves to 9-1, with the only loss on the road at No. 6 Duke.

The loss also snaps a four-game winning streak for the Pride in the series with the Red Storm. Hofstra defeated St. John's four straight years from 2003-04 through 2006-07, all of which were by double-digit margins, but now falls to 5-3 in the series this decade. The Red Storm were a perfect 19-0 against Hofstra during the 1900's.

Hofstra trailed the entire first half but cut the margin to one point at the break (37-36), and then used an 8-0 run to take a 44-37 lead early in the second half. A fast break lay-up from freshman guard Chaz Williams (Brooklyn, NY) at the 19:09 mark gave the Pride its first lead of the game at 38-37, and Williams hit another bank shot with 17:50 left to put Hofstra ahead 40-37. Junior guard Nathaniel Lester (Brooklyn, NY) then converted a lay-up and an eight-foot baseline jumper to push the lead to 44-37.

St. John's answered back with a 7-0 run to tie the score 44-44 on a jumper from Dwight Hardy with 13:54 left. Hofstra scored the next five points, but a Hardy jumper capped off an 8-2 run and briefly gave St. John's the lead at 52-51 with 7:37 left. Jenkins, though, fed senior forward Miklos Szabo (Szeghalom, Hungary) for a 15-foot jumper to put the Pride back in front, scored on a twisting lay-up with 7:48 to play to give Hofstra a 56-53 lead, and buried an NBA three-pointer with 6:50 left to stretch the lead to 59-54.

A twisting lay-up from Malik Boothe bounced on the rim three times before falling through with 3:24 remaining to pull St. John's even at 59-59. Boothe then stole a Hofstra pass and went coast-to-coast for a lay-up to put the Red Storm ahead for good 61-59. Justin Brownlee blocked a Jenkins jumper and D.J. Kennedy made two foul shots to stretch the lead to 63-59 and knocked down an 18-foot jumper to make the score 65-59.

Two Boothe foul shots made the score 67-59 before a Jenkins foul shot with 1:11 remaining finally ended the 13-0 St. John's run, snapping a 5:39 scoreless streak for the Pride. The Red Storm sealed the win at the foul line down the stretch, finishing off the 72-60 score.

St. John's jumped out to a 10-2 lead, before Hofstra's freshmen gave the Pride a spark off the bench. Freshman forward Halil Kanacevic (Staten Island, NY) scored on a third effort down low, and Williams stepped in and stole the inbounds pass before feeding Jenkins for a quick lay-up to make the score 10-6. After a Boothe basket, Williams hit a three-pointer off a Jenkins feed to bring the Pride within three points.

Hofstra pulled back even with 6:15 left in the first half, when Jenkins hit a running bank shot off a baseline out of bounds play to make the score 24-24. Jenkins had a chance to give Hofstra the lead on the Pride's final possession of the half, but his five-footer in the paint bounced off the rim as the Red Storm took a 37-36 lead into the break.

Williams finished with 14 points, seven assists and only one turnover for the Pride in a losing cause, improving to 17 assists and one turnover in the last two games. Kanacevic had 11 rebounds as well to lead Hofstra off the bench.

Hofstra will face Davidson in the consolation game of the Holiday Festival on Monday evening at 7 p.m. Cornell defeated Davidson 91-88 in overtime in the first semifinal on a 30-foot shot at the buzzer from senior forward Ryan Wittman, who had 29 points. The Hofstra-Davidson game will reunite Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora with the man who gave him his first coaching position, Davidson's Bob McKillop (at Long Island Lutheran High School in 1984). McKillop also graduated from Hofstra in 1972.

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