Another road setback
In the end, the freshman 3-point specialist was too much for Perry Clark’s team to handle.
Elijah Ingram, who leads the Big East Conference in 3-point shooting percentage, hit all five of his attempts from long range over the final 10 minutes Sunday, leading St. John’s to a 77-74 victory over Miami at Madison Square Garden.
Ingram, who had a career-high 21 points, didn’t score against the Hurricanes until beginning his 3-point blitz that included two from well beyond the NBA line.
The loss marked the fourth straight time Miami fell to the Red Storm. The ‘Canes dropped to .500(9-9) and 2-5 in the Big East. St. John’s upped their record to 11-6 on the season.
Darius Rice scored 25 points for Miami, which had won two of three after a three-game losing streak. James Jones added 18 points.
Marcus Hatten had 22 points, his season average for St. John’s and well above the eight he had against the Hurricanes last season in the team’s previous meeting.
Ingram entered shooting 41.5 percent (34-for-82) from 3-point range, a percentage that would go up with the five in a row. The first came with 9:26 left and gave St. John’s a 55-53 lead. He hit the next one 38 seconds later to give the Red Storm a five-point lead, and his third 3 made it 64-56 with 5:44 left.
Rice then scored eight points in a 10-0 run that put the Hurricanes up 66-64 with 4:12 to play.
But Ingram hit consecutive triples to give the Red Storm the lead for good and also converted from the charity stripe, going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line over the final 24 seconds to hold off the Hurricanes.
Rice got Miami to 77-74 with four-tenths of a second left on a rebound basket, but St. John’s inbounded the ball to run out the clock.
Ingram, who entered the contest third on St. John’s in scoring with a 10.3 average, finished 5-for-7 from 3-point range and 6-for-6 from the foul line. His previous high was 19 points against St. Francis, N.Y.
St. John’s entered 13th in the 14-team Big East in 3-point shooting at 30.6 percent and the Red Storm, except for Ingram, were 1-for-9 from beyond the arc against Miami.
The ‘Canes will practice throughout the week before taking on Villanova Saturday night at the Convocation Center.
-Compiled by the Sports Information Department