G L I D E H O Y A S: Hoya lose 61-58 to the Red Storm in 3 Big East Conference game at MSG

DON'T LET ME FALL

B.O.B

HOYAS!

I was thinking about this game and asking myself some questions. Will the Hoyas (12-3, 1-2 Big East) be able to deal with senior the laden starters for the St. John's Red Storm (10-3, 3-0 Big East). Will we use most of our bench players especially when our starters aren't playing well. How come we used the bench players during "tough" non-conference games, but are not using them now? I know it's the Big East, but it's still basketball, and we are the Big East. Those non-conferences were said to be Big East like especially playing on the road in hostile environments.

Can someone please help me with this. In my opinion, we have a team full of players that can play, that's the bottom line. They can contribute in some kind of way.  Most of the Hoya bench players are pieces to our puzzle which can be "easily" be solved. Play them!  This game of basketball and our conference isn't about feelings right now. We need to win and win NOW with most of the players we have!

Aaron Bowen, Vee Sanford, Markel Starks and the biggest and strongest Hoya of them all Moses "Vice Grip" Ayegba get ready! One vocal player and leader on the bench that I really love is freshman "pure" point guard Markel Starks, yes the freshman. You would think this kid is a senior the way he leads his team from the sidelines. Markel "truly" knows what a point guard is and does. A point guard is an extension of the coach on the court, but right now he is doing both from the sidelines and on the court when he gets the chance.  One fan has this to say about about Markel:

"I was sitting very close to the Hoyas bench tonight so I got to see the guys interact quite a bit. I thought the game was over at 47-45 when the guys came over for a timeout and (person) was sitting off to the side of the huddle chewing out his teammates and looking like he didn't want to be playing basketball. At the same time, (person) was also screaming and ranting. The one guy on the team who was trying to calm everyone down and bring the guys together: no, not any of our seniors, but Mr. Markel Starks, a freshman." - Fan sitting behind the Hoya bench in MSG

The game started off with the Hoyas making nice, sharp, crisp passes and scoring inside the perimeter and paint. With the strong leadership play of reserve junior Henry Sims, in the first half, the Hoyas took the lead 14-10 at the 12:16 mark and clearly had the momentum at this point. The Hoyas went without scoring until sophomore Hollis Thompson made a 2 point layup at 11:23. The Hoyas were still up 16-12.

The momentum started to change with senior Chris Wright turning the ball over at the 10:56 mark.   St. John's Paris Horne made a two point dunk from Wright's turnover to put the score at 16-14. The Hoyas didn't make another basket until 9:30 with a follow up tip in by Henry Sims for 2 point. At 9:01 Paris Horne makes a 3 pointer. At 8:38 Hollis Thompson follows up with a 3 pointer himself with the score at 21-18 Hoyas.

From the 8:24 minute to the 3:49 minute, the Hoyas did not score until DeWayne Brownlee, Jr. was called for a blocking foul on freshman forward Nate Lubick. Lubick knocked down both free throws with score still being close at 26-23 Hoyas. After 3:49 in the first half, the Hoyas did not score until 10 seconds left in the first half with Chris Wright making a desperate 3 pointer to end the half. During this whole stretch senior Austin Freeman was no where to found.

The second half reminded me of the first half. At the 16:25 in the second half, Hollis Thompson tied the game at 35-35 with a steal and a layup. At 16:01, the Red Storm's Dwight Hardy made a two point layup assisted by teammate Justin Brownlee to take the lead 37-35. With the Hoyas not scoring since the 16:25 mark, the scored remained at 37-35 St. John's until Henry Sims was fouled by Justin Burrell and went to the line to make one of his free throws to put the score at 37-36 with St. John's still in the lead.

The Red Storm remained in the lead up until the 8:44 mark with Julian Vaughn making a two point dunk assisted by Nate Lubick to tie the score for the fourth time in the game 45-45. The Red Storm's D. J. Kennedy stole the ball from the Hoyas. Justin Brownlee made the 2 point shot plus the foul shot after Hoya guard Jason Clark fouled him to put his team up 48-45 at the 7:29 mark.

After this score, the game went into a 15 round slug mode. It was truly a toe to toe slugfest. It reminded me of a heavyweight fight which was fought in the the World's Famous Arena back in the day. This game definitely reminded me of the back in the day St. John's/Hoyas games with Louie Carnessca and John Thompson, Jr. Wow!

St. John's kept the lead until Hoya Hollis Thompson made a 2 point layup at the 3:53 mark in the second half to take the lead back from the Red Storm 51-50. The Red Storm took the lead back with at 3:16 on a big lay up basket by Dwight Hardy 52-51. Justin Burrell was fouled by Julian Vaughn at 2:36. He knocked down both free throws to keep his team up 54-51.  Julian Vaughn made a layup at 2:22 for 2 points with an assist from Chris Wright, score 54-53 St. John's. At 1:24 Julian Vaughn fouled Paris Horne. He made 1 of 2 free throws to put the score at 55-53 St. John's.

Hoya guard Jason Clark grabbed a big rebound off from the second free throw miss of St. John's Paris Horne, and ran the length of the court with ball and scored to tie the game at 55-55 with .55 secs. to go in the game. Jason was also fouled on that play by Justin Burrell (fouled out). He made the free throw to put his team ahead 56-55.

With the Red Storm have the next possession at .42 seconds left in the game Dwight Hardy made a "crucial" layup to put the Storm up 57-56. At .24 seconds Clark grabbed another "crucial" rebound on the defensive end and was fouled by Dwight Hardy. Clark makes both free throws to put the Hoyas up 58-57 with .23 second to go in the game. Man, this game was a "slugout fest!" It's not over yet! At .13 seconds Dwight Hardy travels the length of the court and goes to the rack and misses the layup, but the Hoyas forgot to block out his teammate Justin Brownlee after the miss, so he followed the shot up and scored the two points to put his team up for good 59-58.

The Hoyas get another possesion and Austin Freeman comes down and gets his shot blocked by Brownlee and misses the 2 pointer with .06 seconds left in regulation. Brownlee grabs the rebound and get fouled by Jason Clark with .02 seconds left in the game. Brownlee goes to the line and makes both free throws and puts the game at 61-58. Chris Wright takes the ball out and let's it fly with .01 on the clock, game over. St. John's Redstorm win the game 61-58. This was one heck of a game Hoyanation and friends.

I think the Hoyas will make up their minds on they want to do and how they want to do it for the remainder of the season. They can turn things around with some mild to major adustments, so I hope the players will understand this. It's time to win Hoyanation, and I'm sure you would agree with me. I always if I have all my troops with me, everybody is going to fight. The same goes for basketball if I have all my players and they're healthy and can play we're all going to fight fight fight!

Let's Go Hoyas, Let's FIGHT!!!

GET READY AARON, MARKEL, AND MOSES!