By By Ed Morrone
JAMAICA, N.Y.-As junior guard Loren Stokes raced down the court for a breakaway dunk with 1:25 to go in Tuesday’s game at St. John’s, all of his early-season frustration was washed away.
The dunk gave the Pride a 59-51 advantage and sealed the win in a game where the Pride trailed by 13 at halftime. More importantly, it was a pick-me-up for Stokes, who had tallied just 17 points in the Pride’s first two games of the season.
“The first two games I was turning the ball over a little too much,” said Stokes, who tallied 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in the 64-51 win over its area rival. “Coach told me to put the two games behind me and just come out ready to play.”
Coming off a Nov. 22 road loss to Notre Dame, the Pride needed a win against a big-time opponent, especially since it opens its conference season Saturday against Delaware.
The Pride came out firing in the early going, scoring the first 11 points of the game, leaving the 4,056 at Carnesecca Arena stunned. However, the Red Storm, playing without leading scorer Darryl Hill (knee injury), quickly got back into the game. Lamont Hamilton picked up Hill’s slack, using his 6-foot-10 frame to dominate the undersized Pride inside.
The crowd quickly got back into it, as the Red Storm built a 15-point halftime lead before heading into halftime with a 40-27 advantage. The Pride seemed to have no answer for the opposing frontcourt, surrendering several offensive rebounds that led to second chance points. The team was also left befuddled by full court pressure off its inbound passes, which led to a few key turnovers.
“I told the team at halftime that I wasn’t happy with them,” Pride head coach Tom Pecora said. “But they really stepped it up in the second half. The veterans responded really well after halftime. I’m very proud of these guys.”
In addition to Stokes’ fantastic play, the Pride got a big lift from Antoine Agudio, one of its other talented backcourt members. Agudio came out of the gate and energized the team, hitting a few difficult shots that gradually brought the team back into the game.
“Coach yelled at us at halftime and told us we weren’t playing to our potential,” said Agudio, who finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. “I just wanted to come out and do my job and help my team. Everything just fell into place.”
The Pride was able to erase the 13-point deficit in large part because of horrendous second half shooting by St. John’s. After shooting 44.4 percent in the first half, the Red Storm was reduced to just 17.2 percent, good for an alarmingly low 11 points. The home team missed its final 11 shots, including seven three-pointers.
The Pride was also able to keep Hamilton in check in the second half by throwing double and triple teams at him and letting the cold shooters continue to take outside jumpers.
“We have an expression we like to use: ‘Small and quick goes after big and slow,'” Pecora said. “We aren’t the biggest team in our conference, so it definitely helps our confidence to get a win like this.”
“We were a lot more aggressive in the second half,” Stokes added.
It certainly was an impressive victory for the Pride, but the team can’t afford to sit back and rest on its laurels just yet. After tonight’s game against SUNY Binghamton, Delaware comes to town on Saturday, which marks the beginning of conference season. Playing in a stacked conference, the Pride will have to find a way to put it together for 40 minutes, something it has yet to do this season.
“We have a league game on Saturday before we go on the road to VCU [Virginia Commonwelath University],” Pecora said. “This little eight-day window can possibly define our season.”

Adrian Uter and the Pride dominated in the second half against St. John’s in the victory. (Photo Courtesy Athletic Dept.)