By Joseph Staszewski
Steve Lavin knew JaKarr Sampson had more to give, and the St. John’s University coach just had to make him believe it.
Sampson, last season’s Big East Rookie of the Year, did not score in the first half and took just one shot as his team trailed by as many as 15 points. Lavin, the St. John’s men’s basketball coach, said he told the sophomore to shake off any fatigue from an overtime loss to Penn State the night before and play with more energy.
“I wanted to from the beginning for the game, but I just got off to a bad start,” Sampson said. “I just decided to come out and be more aggressive.”
Sampson went on to score all 16 of his points in the second half to lead St. John’s to a 69-58 win over Georgia Tech in the consolation game of the Barclays Classic Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn. Sampson’s scoring and an effective full court press resulted in a game-changing 24-5 second-half run.
“Today was about aggression,” Lavin said. “It was a bounce-back win for our team and there was aggression on display on both ends of the floor.”
St. John’s (5-2) and its pressure turned Georgia Tech over 11 times after the break and held them to just eight field goals on 22.2 percent shooting. The Yellow Jackets (5-3) went scoreless for more than 7:00 and found themselves down 53-46 with 6:26 left to play in the game.
“For us, the press adds that dimension of scoring flurries, to be able to put points in bunches,” Lavin said.
Sampson got the whole thing started by scoring seven points during the game-changing run. His free throw with 8:29 left to play gave St. John’s its first lead at 47-46. D’Angelo Harrison led all scorers with 21 points for the Johnnies. Sir’Dominic Pointer had nine points and five steals and Chris Obekpa added six blocks. Robert Carter Jr. and Trae Golden paced Georgia Tech with nine each.
It was the third time this season the Red Storm had to try to rally from a double-digit deficit and the first time they succeeded. St. John’s fought back from 18-down against Wisconsin in its season opener and came back after being 15 in the second half against Penn State Friday only to let a two-point lead get away in the closing seconds. The Red Storm, which was down 19-4 in the first half, as the competition gets tougher, is looking to find that same energy at the beginning of a game.
“That’s what we are looking for,” Harrison said. “We got to make it happen if we are trying to beat the Creightons and the Villnovas, the Marquettes so we have a lot of work to do.”
The two games at Barclays were baby steps forward in Lavin’s mind, after calling the performance against Penn State his team’s best of the season.
“If you can combine elements of today with last night than that’s hopefully what we grow into,” Lavin said.
