Feb 2, 2003
By JIM O’CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK – Elijah Ingram leads the Big East in 3-point shooting. Now that he’s figured out how important following through on a shot is, he should pull away from the pack.
The freshman guard went 5-for-5 from long range over the final 10 minutes Sunday and St. John’s beat Miami 77-74.
Ingram, who had a career-high 21 points, didn’t score against the Hurricanes until he started his 3-point blitz that included two from well beyond the NBA line.
“I wasn’t shooting in practice like it was game condition and I’ve been working hard on that,” Ingram said. “Coach has been telling me I have to work on my follow through and it showed.”
Red Storm coach Mike Jarvis immediately brought up the follow through when he spoke of the left-handed Ingram.
“Elijah having the confidence and the follow through was a big difference for us,” Jarvis said. “Follow through, follow through, follow through. That’s the name of the game. I knew he had it today when on two or three of them Marcus (Hatten) had his hands up as Elijah released them.”
The win was the third in four games for the Red Storm (11-6, 4-3) and was their fourth straight over the Hurricanes (9-9, 2-5) at Madison Square Garden.
Hatten had 22 points, his season average for St. John’s and well above the eight he had against the Hurricanes last season in the team’s previous meeting.
He was impressed with his backcourt partner.
“I know where he likes the ball and I got it to him in good position so when he got it I knew he would make it so I held my hands up,” Hatten said.
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Miami’s James Jones (33), who scored 18 points, is fouled by St. John’s Anthony Glover (22). |
Darius Rice scored 25 points for Miami, which had won two of three after a three-game losing streak. James Jones added 18 for the Hurricanes, who dropped to 1-7 on the road this season.
“We’re young but it’s no excuse,” Rice said. “We just didn’t get it done. We came up short again. That’s the story of this season. We have to get some wins.”
Ingram entered shooting 41.5 percent (34-for-82) from 3-point range and he picked that up impressively with the five in a row. The first came with 9:26 left and gave St. John’s a 55-53 lead. He hit the next one 38 seconds later to give the Red Storm a five-point lead, and his third 3 made it 64-56 with 5:44 left.
Rice then scored eight points in a 10-0 run that put the Hurricanes up 66-64 with 4:12 to play.
But Ingram hit consecutive 3s to give the Red Storm the lead for good and he was pretty good from closer to the basket as well, going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line over the final 24 seconds to hold off the Hurricanes.
Rice got Miami to 77-74 with four-tenths of a second left on a rebound basket, but St. John’s inbounded the ball to run out the clock.
“It wasn’t about taking more shots, it was about taking the shots when I had them,” Ingram said. “If I was open I was going to shoot it.”
Ingram, third on St. John’s in scoring with a 10.3 average, finished 5-for-7 from 3-point range and 6-for-6 from the foul line. His previous high was 19 points against St. Francis, N.Y.
St. John’s entered 13th in the 14-team Big East in 3-point shooting at 30.6 percent and the Red Storm, except for Ingram, were 1-for-9 from beyond the arc against Miami, which committed 19 turnovers.
“They got a lot of easy baskets off our turnovers and then Ingram buried those 3s that gave them a second life,” Miami coach Perry Clark said. “Whenever you get another player to step up besides Marcus it’s going to help them.”