QUEENS, N.Y. – Colgate couldn't quite keep pace with a hot-shooting St. John's team, falling to the Red Storm 82-64 on Sunday afternoon in the second of three games in the Gotham Classic.
In a battle between two of the better offensive shooting teams in the country, St. John's withstood Colgate's early run and then pulled away behind a 47% clip from the field and 40% mark from behind the arc.
The Raiders, who came in ranked in the top 10 in 3-point field goals per game, shot just 41% overall and 37% from the perimeter.
Jack Ferguson had seven of Colgate's 13 3-pointers and led the team with 23 points.
Keegan Records scored 11 and
Oliver Lynch-Daniels 10.
St. John's aggressive defense recorded 10 steals and forced 16 turnovers which led to 24 points.
Tucker Richardson scored four of Colgate's first six points and helped the defense hold St. John's to an 0-for-8 stretch while Ferguson drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to open a 12-6 Raiders lead six minutes into the game.
Lynch-Daniels swished a 3-pointer to keep Colgate in front 15-11, but St. John's turned things around with an 11-0 run coming out of a timeout. Stef Smith had five points in the run and the Red Storm built a 27-18 advantage with eight minutes showing in the opening stanza.
Ferguson snapped the cold spell with his third 3-pointer but the Red Storm answered with seven consecutive points. Split up by the two treys from Lynch-Daniels and Ferguson, it was an 18-6 spurt over nearly seven minutes of game time for the home team. St. John's led 46-35 at the intermission.
Ferguson was Colgate's highlight in the second half, netting two more 3-pointers to give him a career-high seven for the game. The Raiders were never closer than 16, and that deficit came after two 3-pointers in the final minutes from freshman
Nicolas Louis-Jacques.
Colgate has lost five of its last six games since knocking off Syracuse. Coming off the 100-85 victory over the Orange, the Raiders have scored less than 70 points in each of their last four losses.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Matt Langel
"Obviously tough game for us. Points off turnovers were the key to the game. Sixteen turnovers is far too many and those leading to 24 points just puts too much pressure on every other part of our game to be competitive. Everyone knows about Julian Champagnie and Posh Alexander being big parts of St. John's success and they were both as good as advertised, but their bench gave them a great boost today as well.
"We've got a few days to regroup now, although exam week is no easy opponent in itself. Two more tremendous challenges in Monmouth and Vermont. I'm confident our group will continue to work and stick together and find ways to learn and grow from these experiences."
UP NEXT
Colgate returns to action one week from today when the Raiders visit Monmouth next Sunday, Dec. 19. Tipoff from West Long Branch, N.J., is 2 p.m. Monmouth took St. John's to the wire last Thursday in an 88-83 decision.
