BROOKLYN, N.Y. – He grew up right in the vicinity of the Barclays Center. Returning to Brooklyn, especially Barclays, is always special for the St. John’s coach. Tuesday evening, the visit was topped off in a memorable manner as St. John’s defeated VCU 87-86 in overtime to capture the 2018 Legends Classic championship.
Many times during these early season tournaments, a competitive game is described as having “March intensity”. This one truly fit that category in an exemplary manner. Case in point: the 45-minute contest saw 16 ties and 24 lead changes. The largest lead was VCU’s 8-point advantage with 16 minutes left in the game. Beside that, was an outstanding 35-point performance by MVP Shamorie Ponds in the championship. The St. John’s junior tied a classic record with 67 points in two games. For St. John’s, a hard-fought battle and well-earned title brings their record to 5-0. VCU, undoubtedly gaining added insight on their own situation during the two days, dropped their first game and stand 4-1.
Scores:
St. John’s 82, Cal 79
VCU 57, Temple 51
Consolation: Temple 76, Cal 59
Championship: St. John’s 87, VCU 86
MVP: Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s
All-Tournament:
Darius McNeill, Cal
Nate Pierre-Louis, Temple
Isaac Vann, VCU
LJ Figueroa, St. John’s
Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s
With his team trailing by one, Shamorie Ponds of St. John’s made a running one-hander from the left of the lane. Four seconds remained with VCU pushing the ball up the floor. The Rams got the look they wanted, a top of the key look by Marcus Evans. The shot missed by a considerable margin as Evans was closely defended. Maybe too close as the VCU bench vehemently pleaded for a foul call. “Was it a foul?” VCU coach Mike Rhoades said, repeating the question from the media. “There was no whistle, therefore no foul. It is what it is. That (no call) did not make us lose. We had plenty of opportunities and missed chances to get the victory.”
Cal was swept at the Legends, losing a tough one in the opener against St. John’s, then dropping the consolation against Temple. If there’s one thing coach Wyking Jones and his group have at this juncture it’s frequent flier miles. They were defeated by Yale in China and made a considerably closer 3,000 mile trip for two games in Brooklyn. The Golden Bears are 1-3 with a date with Santa Clara on Monday at the friendly confines of Haas Pavilion in Berkeley up next.
Field goal oddity: Cal had a rough going in the consolation but did shoot well from three. The Golden Bears were 8 of 15 for 53%. By contrast they were 13 of 32 (41%) from inside the arc.
Temple also had a tough going, losing a heart-breaker to VCU in the semifinals. No surprise the Owls put it behind them, learned from their mistakes and 24 hours were ready to face Cal in the consolation. Temple won rather easily, and would there be any doubt a Fran Dunphy team would not be prepared to play even a night removed from a tough setback?
VCU employs the three-pointer as a proponent of their offense. They will even take a three in transition. The Rams shot 13 of 34 (38%) against St. John’s. Even coach Chris Mullin admitted, “We defended them tough on a number of their (three-point) shots, They just knocked them down. Nothing you can do about that.”
The Rams’ inside option is Marcus Santos-Silva. The 6’7” sophomore had a game-high 12 rebounds, yet struggled in the scoring column with just six points. Santos-Silva averages 7.2 points per game. Added scoring could benefit the Rams, especially by further opening the backcourt to good looks.
He has seen and played his share of outstanding games, yet Chris Mullin was still hard-pressed to think of a better performance than what Ponds turned in for the championship. Ponds not only scored 35 points; he added a game-high seven assists, had seven steals and just two turnovers in forty four minutes of action.
Fran Dunphy was not only pleased with the consolation victory, but the manner it was achieved was significant. “Our ball movement was good,” Dunphy said., “Even against their zone. I thought we made some good passes in the middle of the zone. It wasn’t like we were just shooting jumpers, we were penetrating and playing well against it (the zone).”
