St. John’s routs Merrimack in businesslike opening win

David Jones led St. John’s with 21 points and 10 rebounds as Red Storm defeated Merrimack convincingly in season opener Monday. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s Athletics)

NEW YORK — I’m riding, I’m loading up my pistol

I’m riding, I really got a fistful

I’m riding, I’m shining up my saddle

I’m riding, this snake is gonna rattle

I’m back in the saddle again

— Aerosmith, “Back in the Saddle”

Most first impressions in this sport come with an unwritten disclaimer wherein what you see should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.

But as St. John’s inadvertently posited Monday, if first blush was going to be de rigueur on the corner of Union and Utopia, the question marks may eventually be erased by periods and the cynicism surrounding Mike Anderson and the Red Storm could very well be quelled with a return to the NCAA Tournament.

I’ll stop the delusions of grandeur right there for a moment, because after all, this was still the first act of at least 32 over the next five months. But in as authoritative a performance as you could get from raising the curtain, St. John’s went a long way toward proving its mettle, dominating Northeast Conference favorite Merrimack and bullying the visiting Warriors to the tune of a 97-72 thrashing that showcased the good, the bad and the ugly through various stages of the night inside Carnesecca Arena.

“You could sense the energy was just different, and it trickled to our basketball team,” Mike Anderson assessed as the Red Storm shot nearly 57 percent from the floor and received double-doubles from both David Jones and Joel Soriano in the process. “We came out, had jitters early on, then once we settled down, I thought we really locked in defensively and got up on Merrimack. I thought the tempo was to our liking. You talk about the balance of this basketball team, and I thought you saw it on display.”

“I feel like we did a fantastic job today,” Posh Alexander echoed as he shared ball handling duties with Andre Curbelo almost evenly throughout the night, putting to rest any lingering doubts of whether a dual point guard dynamic would be successful in live game situations. “The whole team came out in a zone, we played well. We’re just going to try to bring that to the next game.”

Among the highlights? Alexander and Curbelo flashed and sizzled their way to a combined 27 points, 12 assists and eight steals to feed a deep and talented roster that counteracted Merrimack’s feisty zone defense for prolonged stretches and forced the Warriors into a 6-for-29 showing from 3-point range.

“That’s my guy,” Alexander said of Curbelo. “Having a point guard like him is a blessing. That was everybody’s biggest question. Today showed everything. Our defense was incredible tonight, me and him picking up 94 feet, playing off each other, picking up steals. I get hyped for him, he gets hyped for me. We’re just making each other better.”

Jones’ debut in a Johnnies uniform went even more swimmingly, as the Dominican amassed 21 points and 10 rebounds while draining five 3-pointers to show off another facet of his game, one which will attempt to replace Julian Champagnie after the Brooklyn native turned pro this offseason.

“You talk about his 3-point shooting, he’s a slasher,” Anderson said of Jones. “He gets to the basket, I think he puts time in on his shot, but I love his activity on the glass. I believe the uptempo will make him even better. Now he’s catching the ball in space, you saw him make a little eurostep, he’s capable of doing that. And he’s a pretty good passer, too. I just love the grit he plays with. He played with a lot of toughness tonight.”

The bad? St. John’s sleepwalked at times in the second half, allowing Merrimack to draw within 15 points with just over eight minutes to play in regulation after leading by more than 20 for a majority of the evening. That was when Alexander went to work as an extension of the coach, imploring his teammates to dig in defensively and put the game away, drawing plaudits from his coach in the process.

“I was proud of him,” Anderson said. “They cut it to 16 or 17, and he really got after the guys. He challenged them. He was in the huddle talking about defense, and we went into our defense. He knows what I want from him, so hopefully that’s a sign that he wants to be the leader of this team. They will follow his lead.”

The ugly? That would be the 29 turnovers St. John’s registered against Merrimack, about half of which being chalked up to unforced errors. The miscues added up to a 33.7 percent turnover rate over the 86 Red Storm possessions, something both Alexander and Anderson were vocal about needing to clean up.

“We’ve gotta take care of the ball,” Alexander surmised. “We’ve gotta get better the next game. That’s upon us, we’re going to talk about that in the next practice and work on trying to limit our turnovers. That’s really it. We just rushed plays, we were just trying to keep the pace up, keep our foot on the gas, and we just turned the ball over. We got lazy some plays.”

“I thought we got sloppy,” a blunt Anderson offered. “We got a lead and we got real sloppy with the basketball. It ain’t about trying to blow somebody out, then you start playing in a hurry. That will be addressed, that’s something I don’t condone.”

All in all, there were more good things to take away than there were concerns, something which will benefit the Red Storm heading into its next contest Saturday against Lafayette.

“I thought we played unselfish,” said Anderson. “We shared the basketball. When we attacked, it was before their defense got set. The guys did a good job of moving the ball, did a great job of knocking shots down and finishing plays. That’s called basketball.”