NEW YORK, NY—Led by a new starting five of freshman Moe Harkless, Sir‘Dominic Pointer, Amir Garrett, Phil Greene and D’Angelo Harrison the St. John’s Red Storm (9-11) routed West Virginia (15-6) 78–62 Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s a lineup coach Lavin has talked about in our staff meetings. He said when you feel it, do it,” said interim head coach Mike Dunlap.
Though the starters were inexperienced, they didn’t show it against a quality Bobby Huggins-coached Mountaineers team. The Johnnies grabbed a 10-point lead just over eight minutes into the game and when forward Amir Garrett put in a reverse layup with just under nine minutes to go until halftime it was already a 21–6 game.
Garrett finished with a career-high 11 points and was one of four players to score in double-figures.
His teammate Moe Harkless led the way though with team-highs of 23 points and 13 rebounds though it really was the play of freshman point guard Phil Greene that seemed to spark the team all game long.
The 6‘ 2“ 180-lb. Greene posted his third straight double-digit scoring game with 11 points, but dished out a career-high 8 assists as the pass-happy Johnnies tallied 17 dimes as a team. ”Phil’s becoming a real good point guard,“ said fellow guard D’Angelo Harrison. ”He’s another guy people sleep on.”
After building a 20-point lead in the second half, the Johnnies nearly slept on West Virginia, as the Mountaineers scored 10 straight points to cut the lead to 66–56 with 3:40 left to play. But St. John’s woke up in time, hitting five of six free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
“It was the first time we actually closed a game,” said an excited-Harrison afterwards.
Up next for St. John’s is a Saturday game at Duke.
