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(PHOTO BY ANDREW DOBROWOLSKYJ)

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MONTREAL - McGill looked poised for a stunning upset with an early eight-point lead but the St. John's University Red Storm unleashed its fury en route to a 90-55 romp over the Redmen who opened their 108th season of men's basketball before a Labour Day weekend crowd of 433 at Love Competition Hall, Saturday.

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It marked second straight loss to an NCAA Division 1 squad for McGill since they upset the Virginia Cavaliers last fall.

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"St. John's is a very athletic team and we took our lumps today but playing this type of opponent will help us down the road," said McGill head coach Craig Norman, who fielded an exceptionally young lineup that featured four freshmen and a couple of sophomores. "One of the positives that we got out of this was that we came back from being down early with an 11-1 run in the first quarter. Another positive was the playing time and experience that our younger guys had."

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St. John's, who flew in Friday from New York City, jumped into an 11-2 lead but the Redmen rallied to take a surprising 20-12 advantage after the opening quarter. However, the Red Storm gained momentum and created havoc with a 40-6 scoring rampage in the second stanza for a 52-26 halftime lead. They were comfortably ahead 72-47 after three quarters.

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"Our conditioning is not what you want it to be yet, but I thought our guys got after it and really competed," said Norm Roberts, in his sixth season as head coach at St. John's. "We got off to a slow start, but then our defence picked up."

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St. John's used a balanced attack that was led by Queens, N.Y., native Malik Boothe and DJ Kennedy of Pittsburgh, who each registered 10 points. Four members of the Red Storm contributed nine points apiece (Paris Horne, Malik Stith, Quincy Roberts and Justin Brownlee) and three others each reached the eight-point plateau.

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The Red Storm had a decisive 39-21 edge in rebounding and a 19-5 margin in steals as a strong press forced McGill to commit 28 turnovers, compared to only 16 by the visitors.

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"I liked the play of a lot of our guys," said Roberts, who used all 12 players dressed, nine of who had at least 10 minutes of playing time. "(They) gave us good minutes at different times. Justin Brownlee and Rob Thomas got in and gave us some great rebounds, D.J. was a mainstay, and Malik [Boothe] and Malik [Stith] really pressured the ball. Our defence starts with them."

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Seniors Michael White of Montreal and Matt Thornhill of Ile-Bizard, Que., led McGill with 12 and 10 points, respectively. White was 5-for-6 from the field and made both his free-throw attempts.

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McGill started a veteran lineup but quickly turned to the new kids on the block. Freshman Olivier Bouchard, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound point-guard out of College Montmorency came off the bench and led all players with an impressive 29 minutes of court time in his university debut, ending up with six points, four rebounds, seven assists and one steal.

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"I was extremely impressed with him," said Norman of the 19-year-old Montrealer who also went 3-for-4 from the free-throw line. 听"We probably played him a little too much for his first game but he may turn out to be our most polished point-guard since Denburk Reid (who graduated five years ago)."

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Another youngster that saw significant time was import Winn Clark, a 6-foot-3, 174-pound guard from Mission Hills, Kansas, who played 21 minutes in his CIS debut and finished with six points and tied Bouchard for the team-high in rebounding with four.

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"Clark was a pleasant surprise and so was Nic Langley," said Norman. Langley, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound freshman forward from Missoula, Montana, garnered 11 minutes of court time.

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St. John's shot an impressive 56.7 per cent from the field (38 of 67), 18.8 from three-point range and 73.3 from the foul line. McGill shot 36.8 from the floor (21/57), 28.6 from beyond the arc and a paltry 53.8 from the line (7/13).

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"They have a very up-tempo style of team and actually seem much better suited for our 24-second clock - the NCAA uses a 35-second play clock - than the other Div. 1 teams we've played," noted Norman.

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Hours after playing McGill, St. John's headed across town to complete their day-night doubleheader with an 8 p.m. tip-off against the University of Quebec at Montreal. The Red Storm then continues their whirlwind Canadian tour Sunday with another doubleheader in the nation's capital. They play the defending CIS-champion Carleton Ravens (1 p.m.) and Ottawa Gee-Gees (8:30 p.m.).

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McGill won't return to action for almost a month. They will host the Laurentian University Voyageurs on Oct. 8, followed by the Redbird Classic tourney at the McGill Sports Centre, Oct. 16-18.

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SOURCE:

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Earl Zukerman

Communications Officer

Athletics & Recreation

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