St. John's Red Storm tops Brown Bears to stay undefeated thus far

The Red Storm is a win away from matching its best start in Norm Roberts' six-year tenure, but the Johnnies haven't made it look easy.

After escaping with a one-point win over St. Bonaventure four days ago, St. John's pulled off a heart-pounding, 79-76 victory at Carnesecca Arena Friday night, improving to 3-0 but only after Brown's Adrian Williams hoisted a potential game-tying shot that clanged off the rim at the final buzzer.

"The bottom line is to win the game, and we won the game," said Roberts, who was still displeased about seeing a double-digit lead melt away to almost nothing over the final six minutes. "We'll talk about it and how we can't let those things happen."

With a win over Siena on Friday, St.John's can start the year 4-0 for the second time under Roberts, and for the first time since the 2007-08 season. But the Johnnies will have to avoid the mistakes they made Friday night, which ultimately didn't catch up to them as Brown committed 21 turnovers to St. John's 10. Not that the Bears (1-3) weren't close to pulling off the comeback. Up by 13 with 6:40 left to play, St. John's had its lead cut to one when Tucker Halpern calmly drained a wide-open three from the top of the key, making it 75-74 with just over a minute to go.

After the teams exchanged baskets - D.J. Kennedy (15 points) drove the lane and threw down a monster dunk, and Halpern rattled home a jumper from the left wing - Malik Boothe sank a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left to give the Red Storm that final three-point lead. "I've been here before, we've had games like this in the past," said SJU junior forward Sean Evans, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. "But in the past, in games like this, we tended to lose the lead and the game. This shows our maturity and our will to win."

SJU led by as many as 15 in the first half and took a 42-32 lead at the break, but found itself up by just five before the midway point of the second period. Peter Sullivan (game-high 17 points) and Matt Mullery (16) paced the Bears, who shot an eye-popping 70% in the second half.

"We just have to have a better mental attitude," said Dwight Hardy, who shot 4-of-6 from three and led St. John's with 16 points. "We have to get the lead to go higher and higher."