St. John’s 72
Stony Brook 61
When St. John’s changed its nickname to the Red Storm, it wasn’t meant to reflect the myriad controversies that have since embroiled its men’s basketball program.
Following the latest embarrassing off-court incident – the arrest of senior starter Willie Shaw on marijuana possession on Tuesday night – the Johnnies entered the win column for the first time this season with a 72-61 road victory over pesky Stony Brook last night.
For one night, at least, the Red Storm (1-2) weathered the storm. Shaw did not play or travel with the team and his basketball future is murky.
“Attitude is 90 percent of how you respond to things,” St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis said after momentarily fumbling for the right words to the cliche. “The response tonight was very good.”
Grady Reynolds, who wore St. John’s unofficial crown of Mr. Off-Court Controversy in 2002-03, poured in a career-high 26 points on scintillating 13-for-17 shooting. Senior Andre Stanley, cited as a team leader last week, added 13 points off the bench. Elijah Ingram scored 15.
Last year, Reynolds was nabbed on an assault charge for an altercation in a dorm-room bathroom with a female student (he settled the charge with anger management).
St. John’s players met with a contrite Shaw after the incident and Reynolds told him, “Just stay strong. Keep your head up and just graduate. Don’t make more mistakes.”
The Johnnies insisted they weren’t flustered by the latest headline-grabbing incident. More important was recovering from their first 0-2 start since 1922-23. They fell, 52-45, to Marquette in the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament at Madison Square Garden. They also lost a 64-59 game in overtime at Alumni Hall to MAAC also-ran Fairfield.
Jarvis said Shaw was absent due to personal matters unrelated to his arrest.
“We are probably right now more concerned about Willie as a person than we are about winning a basketball game,” Jarvis said. “Willie is much more important than any number of wins we would get.
“We’re hoping and we’re praying . . . that Willie will not only be OK, but learn and grow.
“I feel so bad for Willie.”
The Seawolves (1-3) had it tied at 33 just before halftime and only trailed by four, 63-59, with 2:33 remaining before the Johnnies pulled away on free throws. Stony Brook shot just 39.6 percent (21 of 53) for the game, losing its 12th straight to a Big East foe since moving to Division I in 1999.
“They wanted to win more than we did,” Stony Brook coach Nick Macarchuk said. “We both were in similar situations.
“It’s still a Big East team playing against an America East team. There’s still that difference. But when you watched the game, there was very little difference.”
