Fortunately for St. John’s, a college basketball game is 40 minutes.
After a dreadful first half, the Red Storm — in a 32-32 tussle — were getting dominated on the glass and their best player, D’Angelo Harrison was held without a basket. But they regained their composure in the second half, dispatching Florida Gulf Coast 79-68 last night to remain unbeaten at Carnesecca Arena.
“I’m pleased with our ability to fight back in games,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said. “To maintain our poise, our composure, to problem solve and find a way to win games. I thought tonight they showed some resiliency.”
The Red Storm (4-2) also found a spark from an unlikely source.
Felix Balamou, starting for the first time in his collegiate career, took an elbow from Sherwood Brown in the middle of the first half, but stayed in the game and scored a career-high eight points.
Lavin was persuaded to start the freshman guard from Guinea after his strong play at Carnesecca Arena last Wednesday when Balamou scored four points, picked up three offensive boards and three blocks in the Red Storms’ 65-53 over Holy Cross.
“It started with his performance in practice and then it moved to productive minutes, limited minutes but he’s productive in the minutes we give him,” Lavin said. “It’s a great lesson for anyone on the team.”
With 8:24 remaining in the first half, Balamou had his nose bloodied after taking an elbow to the face from Eagles forward Brown and was tended to by medical staff before his return sparked a 10-1 Red Storm run.
“We’re a team, we’re like brothers,” Balamou said. “We believe in each other so we know that if one player is not playing that the others will pick it up.Anybody can make us win.”
The run, which brought St. John’s even with Florida Gulf Coast (4-3) heading into the locker room, was led by sophomore guard Sir’Dominic Pointer. Pointer finished with a career-high 15 points while adding eight rebounds and six assists.
“This was clearly his most dominant performance,” Lavin said. “He does things in practice and in stretches during the game so we’re not surprised. He put it all together tonight. He seemed to be everywhere, omnipresent on the court.”
Brown and Balamou would get into again later on in the game. Later in the first half, Brown was fouled on a layup attempt and appeared to hit Balamou in the face once again. Early in the second half, Balamou was once again called for a foul despite getting upended by Brown.
Harrison, after scoring 17 points against Holy Cross, didn’t pick up his first basket until 4:32 seconds into the second half, but still managed to tie the Eagles’ Bernard Thompson for a game-high 20 points.
“They were well-prepared,” Lavin said. “They did a good job of having a collective awareness of where D’Angelo was at all times. He never got a comfortable look until the second-half.”
The Red Storm fell behind early after Florida Gulf Coast went on a 10-2 run to open the game. In the first half, St. John’s was dominated 21-12 on the boards, including 7-2 on the offensive glass.
“I thought tonight was an example of a stretch where we really played some brilliant basketball that allowed us to get back into the game,” Lavin said. “But we dug a hole early, so we go back to the drawing board.”