Cole’s game-winning three helps St. John’s escape against Saint Peter’s in opener

 

Vince Cole scored 21 points, including last five and game-winning 3-pointer, in St. John’s debut as Red Storm held off Saint Peter’s in season opener. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s University Athletics)

NEW YORK — Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends

We’re so glad you could attend

Come inside, come inside

— Emerson, Lake & Palmer, “Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression, Part 2”

Say it with me: Carnesecca heart attack.

How many times, over the last decade-and-a-half on the corner of Union and Utopia, has the 40 minutes that ensued after the opening tip led to cardiac arrest-inducing moments, most of which usually never end well if the team you root for calls red and white its two primary colors?

And after going through yet another stretch where said team goes four minutes without a field goal and sees a mid-major opponent forge a four-point lead with 38 seconds to play, would it be wrong if the standard reaction was none other than ‘Here we go again?’

So begins the 113th iteration of St. John’s University basketball, sparing no expense to make its rabid fan base feel at home after eight months and thirteen days sidelined in the wake of COVID-19.

Here was the Red Storm, life and death to hold off Saint Peter’s, darlings of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the waxing stages of 2020 and perhaps the MAAC champion had basketball not been swept up in the throes of a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc on the world. Favored by double digits to defeat Shaheen Holloway’s Peacocks, the game was largely a two-possession affair for most of the evening Wednesday, and during a second half where St. John’s was unable to convert even the most routine of layups, its fearless Jersey City-based opponent took advantage of the miscues and not only kept itself within earshot, but forged a lead in the process to coerce fans of the Johnnies to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with a side of antacid.

But as the alarm grew louder and the threat stronger, it was the future that arrived early on a night where it was expected that the incumbent talent would lead the way. In fact, each of St. John’s three highly-touted newcomers were instrumental in the Red Storm squeaking out a 76-75 victory over Saint Peter’s in front of administrators, participants and cardboard cutouts to open a surreal and unconventional 2020-21 campaign.

First, there was Posh Alexander, the freshman from Brooklyn starting his collegiate debut and registering 16 points to go with seven rebounds and five steals, no theft bigger than that of an inbounds pass intended for Dallas Watson with 16 seconds on the clock. Then, there was Vince Cole, the benefactor of Alexander’s nose for the ball and Greg Williams’ ensuing pass, with 21 points off the bench and the final three field goals for the Johnnies, including the 3-pointer with eight ticks left on the clock that turned out to be the deciding factor when Isaih Moore, the last of Mike Anderson’s troika of impactful new faces, stretched over KC Ndefo to corral what would have been a buzzer-beating layup attempt after Matthew Lee was unsuccessful driving the lane following Cole’s heroics.

“Well, first off, all credit to Posh on the steal,” Cole prefaced his recount of a final possession where St. John’s (1-0) overcame the handicap of Julian Champagnie being unavailable due to an ankle injury that head coach Mike Anderson continues to evaluate, one which will probably keep him out Thursday afternoon against La Salle as well. “Without Posh, that play wouldn’t have happened. Coach looked at me. We just had to pick it up, Greg made a great pass and I just knocked down the shot.”

“Just playing in New York, it’s what I always dreamed of, and everybody wants to hit a big shot,” Cole added. “I can’t really take a lot of credit for that, though, because without Posh and without Greg making that pass, I wouldn’t have done anything.”

Cole made perhaps the best first impression any maiden Red Storm player has attempted in recent times, shooting 8-of-12 from the floor and connecting on five of his six 3-point attempts, but was he nervous about how the proceedings would go in his first crack at the bright lights of Division I?

“Definitely not,” he smoothly remarked. “You think about it a little bit, but I’ve been playing basketball my whole life. This is what I really love to do, I work on it every day and really try hard to perfect my craft, so it’s really not a nervous thing. It’s a different level, and you really have to play hard every night and pay attention to other teams.”

That is where Saint Peter’s comes in. Only playing 5-on-5 for the first time since March two short weeks ago, and with the Yanitelli Center — home to the Peacocks (0-1) — undergoing a renovation and forcing the team to practice at the now-closed Marist High School in Bayonne, this game showcased the underrated — sometimes misunderstood, and way too often taken for granted — coaching acumen of Shaheen Holloway, who nearly scored a signature victory in just his 63rd game as a head coach.

“I thought his team came in well-prepared,” Anderson said of Holloway and Saint Peter’s. “You get that first game and you don’t know how your team’s going to come out. I thought our guys came out and played a little lethargic. We didn’t match their intensity early on. In the second half, we took an 8-point lead, then we had some miscues. We were fortunate.”

“The lesson here is we’ve got to learn how to create our own energy. You’ve got to understand also that I’ve got a lot of new pieces, and I’ve got to put those pieces together. I thought Saint Peter’s played well. The thing for us is we did a decent job on the free throw line, which we took advantage of. We missed a lot of layups, and when you let a team hang around, it becomes a game, people start believing. And they believed.”

Now comes the first dose of adversity for St. John’s, flushing a barnburner of an opening game with essentially a 15-hour turnaround, if that, before welcoming La Salle to the floor in a Thanksgiving Day matinee.

“We don’t have time to cry about a win,” Anderson opined. “We have to learn from it, and we’ll learn that you’ve got to come out and up the intensity. This is such an unconventional season. You always want to play coming off a win, you feel much better about yourself. To me, it’s a case of whether we can apply it to La Salle, because it’s a quick turnaround and we’re going to have to play a lot better. We’re going to get some more guys playing well, and when they were thrown right out there in a game setting with no exhibitions, we’ll learn from it.”

One thing is certain, and that is the journey will be one worth monitoring every step of the way.

Come inside. The show’s about to start.