ANCHORAGE – Point guard Tristan Smith didn’t play like a freshman Friday night and he didn’t speak like one after helping lead St. John’s to a 66-63 win over Oregon State in a consolation-round game in the Great Alaska Shootout.

Since the former Amityville High School star committed to St. John’s last year, he has seen coach Mike Jarvis sign one of the nation’s top junior college point guards, Marcus Hatten, and one of the nation’s top high school seniors, St. Anthony point guard Elijah Ingram.

Some players might be get bent out of shape, being worried at best and angry at worst about playing time. Smith’s head clearly is pointed in the right direction, which is why he played the point so well with the game on the line.

Smith scored his first five points in a St. John’s jersey, made one steal and forced a turnover in the final 3:02 of the Red Storm’s come-from-behind win.

“St. John’s is trying to build a great team,” said Smith. “Coach Jarvis is trying to surround us with great athletes and a bunch of great players that want to win. We all can do the job. Some teams can only go about seven deep. We can go 12 deep. That’s how you make a championship team.”

There are seniors who don’t have that mature of an outlook. Jarvis wasn’t surprised to see Smith excel in crunch time, nor did he blink as the freshman handled his first post-game press conference with confidence and poise.

“We were very fortunate that we went to Greece this summer with NYC Hoops with a college team and I had three guys on my team that were on my team at the end of the game tonight – Marcus, Tristan and Eric King,” said Jarvis. “The last night in Greece we played against the Greek national team and every one of these guys played a very good game.

“There was no doubt in my mind that they were capable,” said Jarvis. “In fact, maybe now I’m second-guessing myself as to why they weren’t in the game [Thursday night against Gonzaga] maybe the last 10 minutes.”

If Smith can play at a high level once the Big East season begins, Jarvis suddenly has many more options. By using Hatten and Smith in the final five minutes against Oregon State, it allowed Hatten to move to his natural two-guard position.

Hatten hit one of his two 3s from the left wing with Smith at the point. In the first three games, Jarvis has started Hatten at the point and used Smith strictly to give his starter a few minutes’ rest. Smith enjoys going toe-to-toe with Hatten in practice.

“We’re going to battle in practice, but that’s just half the battle,” said Smith. “Because we’re going to battle together to try and get a championship.”

Smith knows about winning titles. He led Amityville to a pair of New York State Class B Championships. Smith is the school’s all-time leader in points (1,419), assists (607) and steals (348). Many of those assists were to center Jason Fraser, who is choosing among St. John’s, Villanova and Louisville.

Smith said Fraser’s decision must be his own. He said the Red Storm did not recruit him in the hopes of landing Fraser as part of a package. In fact, Smith said Jarvis was up front from the get-go.

“When they recruited me, they recruited me,” said Smith. “And when they signed Elijah, Coach called me and said, ‘We’re signing one of the best high school point guards in America, so be ready to compete.’ That’s fine with me. I want to earn my minutes. [Friday night], I earned my minutes point blank.'”