Ponds steals show again, scores 35 as St. John's upends VCU in overtime

Shamorie Ponds' go-ahead layup lifted St. John's past VCU to 5-0 start and Legends Classic championship. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW YORK -- I'm so darn glad He let me try it again
'Cause my last time on earth, I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin', 'til I reach my highest ground
- Stevie Wonder, "Higher Ground"

Shamorie Ponds had flashbacks coming down to the final ten seconds of Tuesday night's Legends Classic championship game against VCU, flashbacks to a similar situation he encountered in high school.

Back then, the St. John's superstar -- before the dream of donning the red and white and playing college basketball in his own backyard became reality -- was merely an up-and-comer at a perennially strong Thomas Jefferson High School program, and experienced the bitter, agonizing heartbreak of losing a PSAL championship game at the buzzer to Cardozo as a sophomore in 2014 on the same Barclays Center floor to which he returned the past two nights. To a lesser extent, Ponds may also have seen visions of a game in his freshman season at St. John's late Tuesday evening, when he missed a potential game-winning shot as the Red Storm suffered a shocking loss to LIU Brooklyn, also inside the same venue.

But as Friedrich Nietzsche so prophetically stated, that which does not kill makes you stronger. And not only was Ponds more mentally and physically equipped to handle adversity this time around, he righted the wrong in the form of a go-ahead layup that held up on the scoreboard as St. John's defeated VCU in overtime, 87-86, surviving after Marcus Evans' three-point attempt for the win fell short amid contested defense by the Brooklyn native, who may or may not have fouled Evans as his backcourt counterpart squared up for the shot.

"Coming down to the last shot, I kind of had replayed it in my head, how we lost in the Barclays," Ponds said of his thought process seconds before amassing the final two of his 35 points, an emphatic encore to a 32-point showing Monday against Cal, as the Red Storm secured its first in-season tournament championship since 2010 and raised its season record to 5-0 in the process. "I just wasn't trying to go out like that."

What Ponds was doing -- superhuman or merely playing really good basketball at the most opportune of times -- was setting a Legends Classic record with 67 points scored in the two-day event, obliterating the previous mark of 52 set by Texas' A.J. Abrams in 2007. And it wasn't only being done on the offensive end, either, as Ponds registered seven assists and seven steals while having to earn every last drop of his payoff against a scrappy VCU defense that lived up to its mantra of havoc.

"It was incredible," LJ Figueroa said of having a ringside seat to Ponds' heroics, contributing 15 points and nine rebounds in his own right. "Shamorie's the best player I've ever played with before. It was incredible just to watch him (for) myself. It just felt unreal."

"He makes those shots," Chris Mullin added. "Shamorie has a gift, and he's got an incredible touch. He's got a gift of scoring and having a feel and instinct for the game that few have. It was an incredible, tough shot, and he made a few in the second half which are probably shots only he can make. He put on a show."

The shots were not falling in the first half, and even early in the second stanza as well, as VCU (4-1) attempted to lure St. John's into its meat-grinder mentality on defense, while simultaneously living behind the three-point line. The Rams missed nine of the first eleven shots that were attempted, yet had shot well over 40 percent from distance for most of the night before the Red Storm was finally able to ramp up the tempo and turn the game into an atmosphere more to its liking against an opponent who had not surrendered more than 61 points in any contest on the young season. It was the lackluster beginning, coupled with a mutual willingness to admit the collective whole has not hit its best stride yet, that prompted a realistic, yet optimistic, look from the parties involved.

"I think we definitely need to go back to the drawing board," said Ponds. "We definitely need to go back to defending and boxing out, getting rebounds."

"This being my first season here, we're still getting to know each other," Figueroa surmised. "We're still learning what we can do on the court, our weaknesses and our strengths. It's just coming together game-by-game. We're gonna get it together."

"We could play better," Mullin echoed. "I think we will get better. What I have liked is we've played through some shaky minutes where we've struggled. I don't see anyone giving up. I think we've had different guys take over on certain nights, and as we get more familiar, you'll see a little more consistent flow to our game."

The we-have-Shamorie-Ponds-and-you-don't mindset that St. John's fans may be jubilantly sharing throughout the metropolitan area -- and deservedly so -- may be on full display, but behind every great player is an equally strong supporting cast. And only 24 hours removed from both players and coach highlighting the multitude of options in the Red Storm arsenal, each of the six primary options in the chamber responded with at least eight points, vindicating the tremendous belief in the ancillary pieces with Figueroa leading the charge in that department.

"He's been a little better than I thought," Mullin said of the 6-foot-6 junior college transfer, who has emerged as a legitimate X-factor at the four position due to his unique knack for spacing the floor and serving as a capable second or third option. "He's got a gift, too. He's got a really good feel for the game. He's good in small spaces, so he's comfortable if the shot clock gets down or he gets out in the open floor. He's scored the ball at an efficient rate and he's rebounding, and when you play small, that's what you have to do. He's been really good."

"It's a tough lineup to prepare for, because you don't really know who's gonna get going. If someone is struggling, we have another guy or two that can pick it up. To our credit, we were in some tough situations the last two nights. Shamorie picked up that technical foul (with 3:44 remaining in regulation) and we could have went down six. We fought back, didn't hang our heads, and that's really where the experience comes in. They truly believed they can win the game. I don't think that was the fact the last two years."

The ultimate test of a leader is that which he leaves behind in all his men, the courage and will to carry on. And so it goes for Ponds, who -- even after consecutive 30-point games to garner what will likely be yet another Big East Player of the Week award -- has instilled a culture among he and his teammates that settling for minor accomplishments is nowhere near acceptable.

"It's a step that we never took," he said of the program's first early-season event crown since the Red Storm captured the Great Alaska Shootout in Steve Lavin's first season at the helm. "Getting off to a 5-0 start, winning a tournament, it's great for us. We just can't stop here, though. We're not satisfied."