NEW YORK – St. John’s rolled over Fordham in the Holiday Festival 104-56 on Saturday. The venue, Madison Square Garden, is the same. The format and a lot of the intersectional attraction has changed. No more post Christmas tournament. Now it is a Saturday doubleheader with teams, including St. John’s, from the local area. The ‘out of area’ team, La Salle (a winner over Stony Brook in the opener) in this case, is located in Philadelphia about 90 miles away.
The St. John’s numbers were outstanding. Fordham got in a transition game and the Red Storm accepted it and excelled.
Possessions Offensive Efficiency
Fordham 74 79
St. John’s 70 149
The Four Factors:
| Fordham | St. John’s | |
| eFG | 28 | 73.7 |
| FT Rate | 20 | 39 |
| OREB PCT | 40 | 45 |
| TO Rate | 12 | 12.9 |
If you are Ram coach Tom Pecora’s situation you can take solace in the fact that a transition game saw your team only lose the ball on turnovers 12 percent (an outstanding number) of the possessions. But that is where Fordham’s bright spot basically ends.
St. John’s blistered the nets with a nearly 75 % eFG mark. They shot 9 of 15 (60%) beyond the arc while going 68% inside (30 of 44) for good measure. To top it off, the TO rate was quite commendable as well.
Steve Lavin saw six of his Red Storm players hit double figures. Orlando Sanchez (8 of 12) led all with 19 points. Sir Dominic Pointer had a dozen but showed a complete effort with 9 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks.
As noted the teams were close in turnover rate. In assists to turnover ratio, it was all St. John’s as the Storm posted a 3.2 rate to that of Fordham’s 1.1. In fact, St. John’s shared the ball very well assisting on 29 of their 39 (74%) field goals.
Fordham’s outstanding freshman guard Jon Severe did not find a “Garden of dreams” this December afternoon. The Atlantic Ten’s leading scorer at 23.2 ppg, Severe scored nine points on 1 of 21 shooting. He was zero for 16 from inside the arc.
Three main keys….
- Shoot over 70 per cent from the floor, your chances are very good you will win. St. John’s was unconscious, but as the assist to field goal number points out, ball movement was good and shooters were afforded great opportunities.
- Transition. The Storm ran the floor very well and was at an advantage in transition.
- Guarding the paint. Chris Obekpa rejected 4 shots for St. John’s. No number on the non-rejects that were altered. As a team, Lavin’s group sent back 10 Fordham attempts. No small coincidence in limiting the Rams to a 74 offensive efficiency.
St. John’s improved to 6-2 while Fordham is now 4-3.
