ST. JOHN'S IMPROVES TO 7-1 WITH GARDEN PARTY VICTORY

Has Winning Finally Become the 'Norm' (NY Post) for the Red Storm? With St. John's defeating Georgia 66-56 Wednesday night in the opening game of the SEC/Big East Invitational at Madison Square Garden, Norm Roberts' club improves to 7-1. What is more impressive is SJU has yet to have 5th year senior Anthony Mason Jr, a proven Big East player, available this season because of injury and last night played without starting power forward Justin Burrell who missed the game with a sprained ankle. Burrell suffered the injury in the opening minute of SJU's lone loss of the season, last Saturday at Duke.

The Storm is Starting to Believe (NY Post) in themselves and are relying on each other to win games. Even with the injuries and the importance of performing well ont he big stage, Norm Roberts sticks to his principles and started the game with DJ Kennedy, Paris Horne and Sean Evans on the bench as the normal starting trio were punished for being three minutes late to the team bus earlier in the day.

Kennedy continues to shine in his role, this time coming off the bench, to score 11 points, grad 7 rebounds and dish 5 assists. NYC Native and JUCO transfer Dwight Hardy led SJU with 12 points as the balanced Storm saw all 10 players that played Wednesday score at least three points.

St. John's will wrap up their pre-conference late with home games against Fordham (Sunday), Hofstra (12/20) and Bryant (12/23) before diving into conference play on the road against Georgetown on New Year's Eve.