St. John’s overcomes late rally, downs Monmouth

Posh Alexander not only led St. John’s offensively, he made play of game in final seconds knocking loose ball out of bounds as Red Storm defeated Monmouth. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s University Athletics)

NEW YORK — Me used to be angry young man

Me hiding me head in the sand

You gave me the word, I finally heard

I’m doing the best that I can

— The Beatles, “Getting Better”

Maybe it’s appropriate that I preface this column with a Beatles track less than 48 hours after the anniversary of John Lennon’s tragic passing. Or maybe, the genius songwriter and musical savant was so far ahead of his time and so exceptionally gifted in all facets of his charmed existence that his lyrics can also describe college basketball.

Here was St. John’s Thursday night, in yet another close call at Carnesecca Arena — the building notorious for its heart-attack affairs — against a deceptively strong Monmouth squad that cut a 14-point deficit down to two with less than a minute to go in regulation, threatening to sacrifice the equity it built back up Sunday night in its first act following Friday’s disappointing loss to Kansas.

Then, on a night where Julian Champagnie — the Paul McCartney of this Red Storm team if there was one, due to his NBA-level potential and ability to command the marquee in almost any arena — struggled to a respectable showing on a surprisingly off night, the Lennon of Mike Anderson’s roster, the rough-hewn, heart-and-soul type who embodies the ethos of the Johnnies, left a lasting impression in his final encore.

Champagnie may grab the headlines and stand out in the final numbers, but Posh Alexander affects games more, tends to put his own image on final outcomes in a way only he can. And so he did Thursday, saving the game as only he knew how, procuring a rebound from the hands of Nikkei Rutty and then deflecting it off his leg as both players drifted out of bounds, thus preserving an 88-83 triumph over the pesky Hawks to run St. John’s record to 7-2.

“Once he missed, I just chased the rebound and then when I saw him grab the rebound, I just went under and took the ball,” Alexander stated as he recounted the game-clinching sequence. “And when I was going out of bounds, I just threw it off his body. I was thinking about winning the game, that’s all I was thinking about.”

“He has a knack for the basketball,” Champagnie simply said of his teammate and his uncanny ability to make all-out hustle plays seem routine. “He’s been doing that for years now, he’s been doing that forever. It’s a special trait not a lot of people have, so we’re fortunate to have him and have him make those kinds of plays for us, especially when we need them.”

The bulldog mentality in the Brooklynite guided St. John’s to the finish line yet again on a night where its opponent looked as if it would conjure up some past magic of its own while coming back from a 67-53 deficit over the final ten-plus minutes, a double-digit lead the Red Storm needed every last second to protect as Champagnie admitted that his team — for all its prowess offensively — has had problems closing the deal on the defensive end.

“We’re having more of those stretches now where we go up and push the pedal, but we get lost in whatever it is,” the junior superstar conceded. “Now our next step is to get there and get over the hump, and finish teams.”

“I think the lulls are where our guys get tired,” Anderson agreed. “We’ve gotta continue to expand our bench. I thought our bench was instrumental tonight. O’Mar (Stanley), Rafael (Pinzon), Stef (Smith), he comes in and plays big for us, even Joel (Soriano). They came in and they gave us some quality minutes.”

Quality minutes beget quality plays, and quality plays beget quality wins. Enter Alexander again, whose relentlessness was central to taking care of business in the second of St. John’s final four chances to salvage its non-conference season before the gauntlet that is the Big East comes calling.

“I always talk about instinctive guys, and that’s hard to teach,” said Anderson of Alexander and his skill set. “Either you got it or you don’t, and he has a knack for it. That’s the it factor people talk about. (He’s) not afraid of the moment, he just leaves his heart and guts out on the floor, and it just trickles throughout our basketball team. He plays to win, that’s the bottom line.”

The other bottom line, one that fans will no doubt point to, is that the Red Storm only defeated a mid-major opponent by five points when reasonable expectations suggested a double-digit victory. But even Anderson observed the progress in the fight, the bumps in the road to victory, and was able to come away with a satisfied expression as his team survived.

“We left that window of opportunity open for them,” he reiterated. “That’s the part we’ve got to finish and close. But at the end of the day, I told our guys that I thought we got a little bit better today.”

You’ve got to admit, it’s getting better, a little better all the time.