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Strong second half sends St. John’s past Bucknell

By Joseph Staszewski

Bucknell was daring St. John’s University to shoot jumpers, and after poor shooting in the first half Phil Greene IV finally made them pay.

The junior guard scored 12 of his team-high 16 points during a second half surge that gave the Johnnies the lead for good. The St. John’s men’s basketball team fed off his energy and held on for a 67-63 win over visiting Bucknell Tuesday night at Carnesecca Arena.

Greene connected on consecutive 3-pointers and his fall away jumper put the Johnnies up one with 8:56 remaining in the game. A trey from JaKarr Sampson (11 points, six rebounds) with the shot clock winding down capped an 11-0 run to make it 59-51 with 5:01 left.

“I didn’t want to shy away,” Green said. “They were giving us the shots. We had to make them.”

St. John’s (2-1) switched to a zone defense after halftime. It helped stifle Bucknell, which led 35-32 at the half after shooting 53.6 percent from the field. The Johnnies blocked 13 shots, including seven by Chris Obekpa.

“The zone defense was the difference,” St. John’s Coach Steve Lavin said. “It took them out of rhythm.”

Cameron Ayers, of Bucknell (2-2), scored with 25 points and D’Angelo Harrison had 12 for St. John’s, which hosts Monmouth Friday. The Red Storm hopes to use what it learned against Bucknell.

“This game let us know that defense will win us more games than offense,” Sir’Dominic Pointer said.