Published: December 29, 2006
NEW YORK (AP)
Antoine Agudio scored 24 points to lead Hofstra to a 63-51
victory over St. John's on Friday night in the championship game of
the Aeropostale Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.
It was the fourth straight win over St. John's by the Pride
(8-4), and all of them have been by at least 10 points.
St. John's, the metropolitan area power for so long under Hall
of Fame coaches Joe Lapchick and Lou Carnesecca, won the first 19
meetings with Hofstra. The Pride ended the streak in 2000, lost two
more to the Red Storm, and then took over with the four wins in the
last four years.
The Red Storm (9-4) were a two-time defending champion in the
tournament and had won seven straight games overall.
``They have three guards who are tremendous players who make
plays and make shots,'' St. John's coach Norm Roberts said
referring to Hofstra's trio of Agudio, Loren Stokes and Carlos
Rivera, who average a combined 51 points per game. ``We haven't
played out best ball when we have played them, but we can't
get caught up with one school. We have to focus on us and
there is no way we're going to let one loss take away from our
winning seven in a row.''
Hofstra won this tournament in 1998 and 1999 and lost in the
championship game in 2000.
St. John's was making its 41st appearance in the tournament, and
the Red Storm now have a 14-11 record in championship games.
St. John's was 1-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half,
falling behind 34-27. Eugene Lawrence hit two 3's in an 8-2 run
that brought the Red Storm within 36-35 with 14:09 to play.
Hofstra responded with an 8-0 run with half of the points scored
on dunks by reserve center Chris Gadley. St. John's closed within
five points one more time, 49-44, on a one-handed dunk of an
alley-oop pass by Anthony Mason Jr. with 6:30 to go. But Agudio,
the tournament MVP, hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game to start a
14-2 run.
Loren Stokes added 13 points and six assists for the Pride,
while Gadley finished with eight points, four times his season
average, and seven rebounds, more than double his average.
Lamont Hamilton had 22 points and 10 rebounds for St. John's,
which advanced to the title game with a 45-44 overtime win against
Boston University, while Mason had seven points and 11
rebounds.
``These things happen,'' Hamilton said of the losing streak to
Hofstra. ``They came out and hit some big shots and we didn't
execute when we had to.''
The double-double was the 15th of Hamilton's career.
Hofstra, which beat Saint Joseph's 65-63 in the first round on
an 18-foot jumper by Stokes with 2.2 seconds to play, was 9-for-26
from 3-point range, while the Red Storm finished 5-for-20.
Hofstra has won seven of its last eight games, the lone loss at
Syracuse last week.
This was St. John's 600th game in Madison Square Garden, its
second home court, and it has a 369-231 record there.