JAMAICA, N.Y. – The Red Storm might have scored 73 points in the game, but the defense of the Stags played as good as we've seen all year. The Stags forced 19 St. John's turnovers and swiped 12 steals, the most by any Red Storm opponent this season, but St. John's was able to hang on to a 73-54 win at the Carnesecca Arena. The 19 miscues was also a season-high for the Red Storm, a team that were receiving votes in the national poll last week.

“I think we did a lot of great things defensively today,” Head Coach Joe Frager said. “We really tried to overemphasize the pack line and I think we did a great job with that early, not letting the ball get to the rim. But you give up that 17-20 foot shot and they're good they are going to knock some down.”

The margin of the final score does not show the fact that the Stags hung around for basically the entire contest. The Stags trailed by just 13-points in the fourth quarter until the Red Storm went on a run and kept at least a 14-point margin the rest of the way.

The Stags showed right away they had the ability to hang in with a St. John's team that was picked to finish second in the Big East. A Casey Smith layup and five points from Kristin Schatzlein gave the Stags an early 7-2 advantage. After Kelsey Carey jumped over a double team to finish a layup, tying the game at 9-9, the Stags would not trail until Aliyyah Hanford (the Big East's second leading scorer) ignited a 6-0 St. John's run with two easy layups.  The Stags went into the first break trailing 19-13.

That deficit would be cut to just four after a Carey layup with 8:30 left in the second quarter. The Stags had some chances to make the game even closer, forcing four turnovers and allowing just two Red Storm field goals in the first five minutes, but they could not convert on the other end. Seven second quarter points by Hanford extended the St. John's lead to 36-23 at halftime.

Smith scored five in the quarter, including her first career 3-pointer.

In the second half the other half of the scoring double headed monster Danaejah Grant (the Big East's leading scorer) scored nine points in the third quarter and St. John's led by as many as 19 in the third frame.

The Stags were able to cut into that deficit, and they did so at the line. In this game the Stags went 20-for-24 from the line, including a perfect 9-for-9 mark in the third quarter. Combine that with a defense that allowed just one field goal in the final 5:12 in the third quarter, and the Stags found themselves down 53-40 going into the final quarter. The lead would not get any closer in the final frame despite six points from Lizzy Ball.

Many Stags were able to get valuable minutes against the Big East school. Casey Foley checked in for 22 minutes, and helped shutdown St. John's in their final possession of the first half. The best moment of her extended play came in the fourth quarter, as she picked up back-to-back steals to keep the Stags within 14.

“I'm so pleased with her effort today,” Frager said. “I think she really laid it out there for us as well as a lot of our kids.”

Smith led the Stags with her fourth-straight double digit performance with 15 points. It is the first time in her career that Smith has had four-straight games in double figures. Carey added in 12 and tied for the team lead with four rebounds.

For the Red Storm, the duo of Handford and Grant came into the game as the fourth leading scoring duo in the country and finished with a combined 38 points.

“There's no doubt,” Coach Frager said about the pride he felt with the fight of the Stags. “Obviously the number one goal was to try and pull the upset but secondary it was to get better and battle regardless of what the score was and I really did believe that our kids did this.”

The Stags will next be in action on December 28 at 5pm at Alumni Hall against Harvard.