Johnnies roll over Division II Molloy
SHAMORIE Ponds scored 14 points with six rebounds, Bashir Ahmed had five boards and 14 points and St. John’s beat Division II Molloy, 71-43, on Monday for its first 4-0 season start since 2014-15.
Marvin Clark II added 10 points and Justin Simon had seven points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for St. John’s, which outrebounded the Lions 43-35 and scored 26 points off of 21 Molloy turnovers.
Back-to-back dunks by Marcus LoVett and Ahmed capped the 22-2 run St. John’s used to open the second half and they led by as many as 29 on Amar Alibegovic’s layup with 1:04 to play. Clark’s jumper put St. John’s up for good, 17-16, after three lead changes and the Red Storm led 28-21 at halftime after shooting 33% from the field.
Broderick Robinson hit career highs of five 3-pointers and 26 points to lead the University of Missouri-Kansas City to a 74-63 victory over Manhattan in the opening game of the Gulf Coast Showcase.
Tony Carr scored 16 points to lead six Penn State players in double figures and the Nittany Lions beat Pittsburgh, 85-54, in the second game of the Progressive Legends Classic in Brooklyn. Mike Watkins and Shep Garner scored 13 apiece, while Lamar Stevens, Josh Reaves and Nazeer Bostick each scored 10 for Penn State (5-0), which will play No. 16 Texas A&M, a 72-55 winner over Oklahoma State , in the title game tonight.
GEORGIA DOME NO MORE
One of the nation’s largest domed stadiums collapsed Monday into a pile of jagged concrete and a vast cloud of dust in a scheduled implosion in downtown Atlanta.Nearly 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) of explosives were used to blast the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to smithereens at 7:30 a.m. Onlookers gathered at skyscrapers’ windows, at a restaurant atop the city’s tallest hotel, in parking lots and on nearby streets to watch the destruction of the landmark stadium.
The dome opened in 1992, and it was flattened in just about 15 seconds. The Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which includes the 71,250-seat dome, had said it would take 12 seconds for the explosives to go off plus another 3 seconds for sections of grandstands to hit the ground.
The explosives went off in a spiral around the stadium as it collapsed on itself.
CHIPPER LEADS HALL CLASS
Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel are among 19 first-time candidates on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for baseball’s Hall of Fame.
They are joined by Johan Santana and Chris Carpenter. Also among the newcomers to the 33-man ballot announced Monday are Jamie Moyer, Andruw Jones, Carlos Lee, Kevin Millwood, Carlos Zambrano and Johnny Damon.
Trevor Hoffman, who fell five votes short last year, leads holdovers that include Vladimir Guerrero, Edgar Martinez, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling.
CELTS WIN 16TH STRAIGHT
Kyrie Irving scored 10 of his season-high 47 points in overtime as the Celtics rallied once again from a double-digit deficit to beat the Mavericks, 110-102, to extend their winning streak to 16 games.
The Mavericks led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but as they have several times during their winning streak, the Celtics stormed back.
The winning streak ties the fourth-longest in Celtics history.