Red Foxes fall flat at MSG

In the world's most famous arena, Marist delivered a performance that was anything but.
St. John's capitalized on its opportunities and cruised to a 65-44 win in each team's first contest in the Aeropostale Holiday Festival. The Red Foxes shot 7-of-25 from the free-throw line, turned the ball over 16 times, and had eight shot blocked. Marist also played without point guard David Devezin, who missed his second straight game after suffering a heel injury on Dec. 2 at Memphis.
With Devezin acting as the catalyst for the Marist offense, his loss was hard to overcome. Marist has lost its last two games without Devezin, averaging 45.5 points in those two contests. Without Devezin, Marist head coach Chuck Martin was forced to change his gameplan to compensate for what the team loses in Devezin. Freshman R.J. Hall was forced into a starting role for the second straight game, although Martin is pleased with Hall's progress.
"It's hard. Dave is, as I mentioned, he's a good player, he's an all-conference guy," Martin said. "So when you lose him, R.J. Hall, who's a freshman, who's been playing really well for us, he's not the issue, the issue is I don't have anybody to come off the bench to give me what R.J. gives me. So everyone on my team, their roles change."
Despite missing Devezin, Marist shot 30.2 percent from the field and 28 percent from the free-throw line. Turnovers continue to be an issue for the Red Foxes, who turned the ball over 27 times at Siena. The free-throw shooting has not been a problem this season but cost Marist severely in this game. Late in the first half, Marist missed the front end of four one-and-ones. Martin insisted that it was just one of those nights from the line, but did suggest that not having a morning shoot-around could have hurt the team.
"Sometimes you can practice free-throws everyday at practice, two or three times a day and you just don't knock them down," Martin said. "If anything, maybe the fact that we didn't shoot around today at the Garden, that could be something. I don't think so, but in my mind if I'm trying to replay why we didn't shoot free-throws well, that could be it, but you know what, we just didn't make them. We didn't knock them down."
Marist's last lead of the game came 6:21 into the first half. Ryan Schneider drained a corner jumper to give the Red Foxes a 12-10 lead. St. John's responded with a 13-0 run and Marist never recovered. Marist trailed, 35-25, at halftime and did not tally its first field goal in the second half until the 9:39 mark.
Ryan Schneider led Marist with 14 points and eight rebounds. Schneider leads the Foxes in scoring and rebounding this season. For St. John's, forward Sean Evans had a game-high 19 points. Evans also grabbed 13 rebounds. The Red Storm had three other players score in double figures. Paris Horne (pictured above), D.J. Kennedy, and Rob Thomas contributed, 12, 11, and 11 points, respectvely.
Javon Parris was the only other Marist player to score in double-figures. The junior college-transfer poured in a season-high 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. This was arguably Parris' best game as a Red Fox.
"He did some good things today," Martin said. "I told him, 'You've just got to relax, take everything in, attack the basket, and if you have open shots, knock them down.' He's been working really hard back in Poughkeepsie. I told him every game we play non-conference...we're just trying to get better every single day."
Marist has a quick turnaround as it will face Columbia tomorrow at noon. The game will be televised on the MSG network in high definition. Marist faces Columbia by virtue of losing today to St. John's. St. John's will take on Virginia Tech in the championship game at 2:30 p.m.