St. John’s hang on for wild win over Boston College

If there were any remaining doubts about if the St. John’s Red Storm have entirely bought into Mike Anderson’s play style, those were erased on Monday evening at Mohegan Sun.

The Red Storm came away with a 97-93 victory over the Boston College Eagles, but the journey to 97-93 was incredibly exhilarating. The Eagles took a 19-9 lead to open the game, but St. John’s stormed back, tying the game by the six minute mark in the first half as Posh Alexander and Julian Champagnie, making his season debut, combined for 30 of St. John’s 52 first half points. The Red Storm took a 52-40 lead into the locker room, which is impressive considering they were down by 10.

The start of the second half was more of the same for the Red Storm, extending their lead to 20 points with 13 minutes to play.

And then, the run came. a quick 14-0 run brought the Eagles within six, and things looked precarious, but the Red Storm hunkered down and got the lead back to 15 with four minutes to go.

And then, the run came again. Former Providence Friar Makai Ashton-Langford took over for the Eagles, scoring six straight points. Then, Wynston Tabbs tacked on five and Jay Heath hit a layup. Suddenly, St. John’s was up by just three going into the final minute. Greg Williams hit all four free throw attempts in the final minute and the Red Storm buckled down on defense, to survive with the 97-93 win and move to 3-0.

In typical 40 Minutes of Hell fashion, St. John’s forced 19 turnovers and scored 25 points off of them.

Julian Champagnie’s season debut didn’t disappoint, as the sophomore had a career-high 29 points and 10 rebounds.

Wynston Tabbs had 23 points for Boston College.

The Red Storm were originally supposed to be headed to Texas Tech, but that game was called off. Instead, St. John’s will remain at Mohegan Sun and face BYU on Wednesday.