Sports

St. John’s freshman Lawrence gets a chance

Midway through last week, St. John’s coach Norm Roberts faced a difficult decision made even harder by the vagaries of injury.

Small forward Anthony Mason Jr. was undergoing an ultrasound on his ailing hamstring. Shooting guard Quincy Roberts was being evaluated for concussion-like symptoms.

Before deciding to medically redshirt Roberts for the season, the coach was hoping for assurances that Mason had decent odds of playing this season.

In the meantime, Roberts would need to find quality minutes from a bench player to replace the loss of the two swingmen.

The player that has a chance to step up is Bronx native Omari Lawrence.

“Omari is more like Mace and Quincy, but we can swing some other guys and Omari can really help us,” Roberts said. “He has a chance to give us some good minutes. He’s going through the normal process for freshmen. He’s had some good games and he’s had some games I’m sure he thinks he could have played better.”

Lawrence, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound freshman, could have a great chance when the Red Storm (9-2) play Bryant College (0-11) tonight in Carnesecca Arena (7:00, no TV, WBBR 1130 AM), coming off a 71-66 loss to Cornell Monday night in the championship game of the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival. It’s the last game before St. John’s begins Big East play on Dec. 31 at Georgetown.

Lawrence is averaging just 2.5 points and two boards in limited minutes, but he is doing everything and more to stay on the court. Lawrence has been working with strength and conditioning coach Pat Dixon to drop 10 pounds, and he has been staying after practice for an extra 90 minutes of shooting.

“I think the speed of the game has been the hardest thing to adjust to,” Lawrence said. “I need to be more consistent. If I can show the staff that, I’ll see the court more. It’s on me.”

lenn.robbins@nypost.com