National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
St. John's 66, Long Beach St. 49
When: 7:30 PM ET, Monday, December 22, 2014
Where: Carnesecca Arena, Queens, New York
Officials: # Jim Burr, # Ray Natili, # Earl Walton
Attendance: 5014

No. 19 St. John's 66, Long Beach State 49: Chris Obekpa scored a career-high 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked six shots to lead the host Red Storm to their sixth straight victory.

Phil Greene IV scored 16 points and had four steals while Sir'Dominic Pointer finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for St. John's (10-1). D'Angelo Harrison added nine points and 10 rebounds while Jamal Branch also scored 11 points for the Red Storm, who are 10-1 to begin a season for the first time since 1990-91.

Mike Caffey scored 13 points and Tyler Lamb added 10 points for Long Beach State (5-8). The 49ers shot 32.3 percent from the floor and finished with 17 turnovers.

St. John's, which held the 49ers to 24.3-percent shooting in the first half, including 1-of-13 from 3-point range, took an 11-4 lead in the first four minutes, with Harrison leading the way with a 3-pointer. But Harrison, the leading scorer in the Big East at 19.8 points, picked up his second foul shortly after that and spent most of the remainder of the half on the bench, and the 49ers rallied to cut the Red Storm's lead to 24-20 at halftime.

Long Beach State opened the second half with an 8-3 run – capped by a 3-pointer by Lamb – to take a 28-27 lead. But St. John's went on a 9-0 run to take control and the Red Storm led by as many as 19 points down the stretch to improve to 7-0 at Carnesecca Arena this season.

GAME NOTEBOOK: St. John's played without its second-leading scorer, sophomore G Rysheed Jordan (14.5), who sat out the game with a stomach virus. ... The Red Storm, who entered the game eighth in the nation in blocked shots (6.7), finished with nine. ... Harrison had a streak of four consecutive 20-point games snapped.
Top Game Performances
 
Long Beach St.   St. John's
Mike Caffey 13 Scoring Phil Greene IV 16
Mike Caffey 3 Assists Sir'Dominic Pointer 7
Branford Jones 6 Rebounds D'Angelo Harrison 10
David Samuels 1 Free Throws Made Sir'Dominic Pointer 3
Mike Caffey 2 Steals Jamal Branch 4
Eric McKnight 2 Blocks Chris Obekpa 6
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Long Beach St. 49 32.3 7-22 2-6 13 36 4 4 17
St. John's 66 45.0 3-15 9-16 14 32 9 12 7