Eagles have no answer for Ponds
NEW YORK - There might not be a defense in America that can stop St. John’s Shamorie Ponds right now.
Marquette’s beleaguered unit never stood much of a chance at Carnesecca Arena on Saturday.
The sophomore guard finished with 44 points as the Red Storm handed the Golden Eagles a crushing, 86-78 loss.
“Ponds is a pro,” MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “We’ve played some great guards this year and it seems like every team in our league has great guards. But that son of gun is a pro.
“The way he commands the game. His ability to score. His presence on the floor. He was sensational. We had no answers for him.”
Ponds is on an incredible scoring binge, with 132 points in four games. That stretch for St. John’s (13-13, 2-11 Big East) includes victories over top-
five opponents Villanova and Duke.
Ponds scored 17 points in the first half on 7-of-11 shooting. He was even better after halftime, scoring 27 points on just 12 shots.
His best stretch came when he scored 13 straight points for the Red Storm, culminating in a three-pointer for a 71-61 lead with 7:40 remaining that deflated the Golden Eagles (14-11, 5-8).
“We tried everything,” MU senior guard Andrew Rowsey said. “We tried a zone. We tried switching. He’s a great player. We couldn’t slow him down.”
St John’s hit 13 of its first 15 shots to start the second half, including the aforementioned explosion by Ponds. The Red Storm shot 30 of 50 (60%) for the game.
“Our defensive intensity wasn’t where it needed to be,” Wojciechowski said. “I thought in the first half we did a better job of doing what we wanted to do. But we couldn’t sustain that. In this league, you’ve got to be able to sustain it for 40 minutes.”
The good news for MU was that Rowsey found his way out of a recent slump.
He finished with 34 points on 11of-26 shooting. He started out aggressively, scoring 19 of MU’s 32 points in the first half despite missing his last five field-goal attempts.
Rowsey shot 4 of 15 in the victory over Seton Hall on Wednesday. Before that he was a combined 2 of 11 against Butler and Providence at home.
“I was just trying to take what the defense gave me,” Rowsey said. “I knew it would come back eventually.”
Sophomore wing Sam Hauser and sophomore guard Markus Howard each added 18 points for MU.
But the Golden Eagles got only two points from their bench, with sophomore Harry Froling and freshmen Greg Elliott and Jamal Cain combining to shoot 1 of 4.
MU was without freshman big man Theo John, who missed his second straight game with an illness.
“In order for us to beat the teams in our conference, we’re going to have to have better balance,” Wojciechowski said. “We put so much pressure on Andrew, Markus and Sam.
“What ends up happening is if they don’t sense the guys who are supporting them, who are more of our role players, aren’t playing with confidence or intensity, then they take it upon themselves to do things that over the long haul aren’t going to produce positive results.
“I think that’s where you see some inefficiencies offensively or some poor decisions. We can make better decisions, but we also need to have better balance so there’s not as much pressure on those guys to try to put a cape on and try to win a game for us.”
Ponds was the player who looked like a superhero on Saturday. His 44 points were the most ever at St. John’s on-campus arena, which was built in 1961. Ex-St. John’s star Malik Sealy scored 43 against Central Connecticut in 1990.
“It’s a blessing,” Ponds said. “All the great players who came through this university, for my name to be up there, it’s a dream come true.”
MU will have a week off before playing another tough road game at Creighton on Saturday.
With five games remaining, the Golden Eagles would need to win four to finish with a .500 record in the league.
“We’re a young team, but we’re a good team,” Rowsey said. “I think we’ll be able to bounce back and finish the season strong.”