Red Storm Begin Road to 3rd Place in Advocare vs. UCF

(Photo taken by St. John's University Athletics)

Orlando, FL--After suffering the first loss of their very promising season, the St. John's Red Storm (5-1) simply are dusting themselves off and not letting this loss affect them, when they face the University of Central Florida (4-1) in the third place game of the Advocare Invitational at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

Chris Mullin's Red Storm enters tomorrow's matinee match-up by meeting UCF for the first time in its history. Along with coming into the contest losing their most recent match versus Missouri, they erased a 16 point lead that was led by Jordan Barnett. The Johnnies couldn't hold off the hot hands of the Tigers, where they drained nine of 14 chances from beyond the arc in the second half, which effectively put the game away.

Shamorie Ponds had the best game of his career by netting 31 points. Ponds also added five boards, and seven assists. The native from Brooklyn shot 13 of 27 from the field, and added three successful shots from beyond the arc. Redshirt sophomore Marcus LoVett netted 14 of his own points, but had difficulty from the field, as he shot four of 14 in 40 minutes of play on Friday vs. Mizzou.

The Red Storm will have to be better from the field, as they shot 27 of 64 with a 42.2% against Missouri in the loss. But played well from three-point land by scoring 44% and netting 11 of 25.

The University of Central Florida Knights have had some turnover trouble, as they average 17 of their own turnovers per game up to date. Not a fun match-up when the turnover ratio for their opponent in the Red Storm have a turnover margin of +8.8, which ranks third in the nation. The Johnnies are in for a defensive game today. The Johnnies are averaging 9.3 steals per game, and the duo of Kassoum Yakwe and Tariq Owens are averaging 5.0 blocks per game as well.

Potential Starting Lineup for University of Central Florida Knights

G- Caesar DeJesus

G- Dayton Griffin

G- Terrell Allen

F- A.J. Davis

C- Tacko Fall

Potential Starting Lineup for St. John's Red Storm

G- Shamorie Ponds

G- Marcus LoVett

G- Justin Simon

F- Marvin Clark II

F- Bashir Ahmed

The Johnnies take on UCF tomorrow at noon on ESPNU from Orlando, Florida, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.