Photo Gallery New York, N.Y. (December 14, 2014) – He wore number 23 in a red and black uniform and his last name was Jordan. And for fans at Madison Square Garden today it seemed as if his first name could have been Michael but it was Rysheed Jordan who scored a game-high 24 points to lead St. John's University to a 74-53 win over Fordham University in the ECAC Holiday Festival.
With the loss, the Rams fall to 3-5 while #24 St. John's improves to 8-1.
In was a contrast in lineups when the two teams got ready for the opening tip as Fordham started three freshmen and two juniors to four seniors and one junior for the Red Storm. The young Rams were able to stay with the experienced Red Storm for the first 15 minutes but St. John's capitalized on Fordham miscues over the final 25 minutes, scoring 28 points off of 20 Ram turnovers.
Eric PaschallThe Rams used an
Antwoine Anderson jumper and two
Christian Sengfelder three-pointers to build an 8-4 lead 3:05 into the game before St. John's netted five straight to take a 9-8 lead two minutes later.
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Mandell Thomas free throw with 14:25 left in the half gave Fordham a 9-8 lead and started an 11-5 run as the Rams took their biggest lead of the day, 19-13, following an Anderson trifecta at the 11:21 mark.
The Fordham offense then went cold as the Red Storm scored eleven unanswered points to take a 24-19 on a Chris Obekpa layup with 7:55 remaining.
A pair of Anderson free throws 23 seconds later pared the St. John's lead back to three, 24-21, but a Phil Greene IV jumper and Obekpa dunk off a Fordham turnover helped the Red Storm build the lead back to seven, 28-21, with 5:07 left in the half.
Bryan Smith halted the Red Storm run with a jumper in the lane at 4:41 and added another 21 seconds later to pull Fordham within three, 28-25.
Following a St. John's miss, Obekpa was assessed his second technical foul of the game and was ejected, giving the Rams a chance to take the lead but Fordham could only convert one free throw to make it a two-point game, 28-26, with 3:48 remaining.
Fordham trailed by two again just over a minute later, 30-28, following an
Eric Paschall dunk but the Red Storm closed out the half with nine straight points to take a 39-28 lead into the break.
A Sengfelder three-pointer 34 seconds into the second half cut the Fordham deficit to eight, 39-31, but that was as close as the Rams would get as St. John's outscored Fordham 20-2 over the next nine minutes to take a 59-33 lead midway through the second.
Paschall led the Rams with 14 points and eight rebounds while Thomas chipped in with eleven points, seven steals and five assists and Sengfelder added eleven points and three rebounds.
After a week off for finals, the Rams return to action on Monday, December 22, as they travel to Brooklyn to face the Manhattan College Jaspers in the Barclays Center at 6:00 p.m.
NotesThomas's previous career-high in steals was five, set against Richmond last February, and were two shy of the school record of nine, set by Jason Harris in 1999… Thomas' five assists were a season-high… The Rams outrebounded the Red Storm 35-32 and have now outrebounded their opponent in six of the eight games this year.
