Joel Soriano totaled 22 points and 11 rebounds and highlighted his latest double-double by making the first two 3-pointers of his career as St. John’s opened the Rick Pitino era with a 90-74 victory over Stony Brook on Tuesday night in New York.
St. John’s (1-0) never trailed in its debut under Pitino, who signed a six-year contract with the school on March 20, following three seasons at Iona.
Soriano, who totaled 25 double-doubles last season, made 9 of 12 shots. He also sank a pair of threes in the second half after never attempting a shot from behind the arc in his career at Fordham and St. John’s.
Daniss Jenkins, who came over from Iona with Pitino, added 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as the Red Storm shot 51.5 percent from the floor. Chris Ledlum contributed 16 points and 14 boards to help St. John’s control the glass by a 43-30 margin.
Jordan Dingle chipped in 13 points as the Red Storm improved to 10-0 all-time against the Seawolves (0-1).
Dean Noll scored 15 points in his Stony Brook debut after missing last season due to recovery from a torn ACL. Andre Snoddy added 13 points and Toby Onyekonwu and Keenan Fitzmorris each chipped in 11 as the Seawolves shot 43.9 percent and misfired on 12 of 16 3-point tries.
St. John’s started slowly before making seven straight shots to take a 24-16 lead on a hoop by Simeon Wilcher with 11:02 remaining in the first half. St. John’s scored nine straight points and opened a 31-16 lead on a mid-range jumper by Jenkins with 8:15 left and was up 41-30 at halftime after Jenkins hit a trey and Ledlum converted a dunk in the final 68 seconds of the half.
St. John’s used a 10-1 run early in the second half to push the lead to 51-34 on a 3-pointer by Jenkins with 17:08 to go. Soriano hit an open three from the top of the key after getting a pass from Ledlum to give the Red Storm a 63-43 lead with 13:18 remaining, and his second triple hiked the lead to 74-56 with nine minutes to go.
–Field Level Media