QUEENS, NEW YORK---Last Sunday, the St. John's Red Storm recorded the first signature victory of the Chris Mullin era (Syracuse). Then on Friday, they experienced the first horrific loss as they were rocked at home by Incarnate Word 73-51. This afternoon, in their second home game in 48 hours, they again failed to protect Carnesecca Arena, this time to the NJIT Highlanders.

As if their time to upset power conference schools is annually December, the Highlanders stood toe-to-toe with St. John's before downing them by the score of 83-74.

Both hesitant to pull ahead away early, neither team had more than a one-possession advantage until NJIT star Damon Lynn nailed a trey with 12:59 remaining in the first half (12-7 NJIT). 

From their five point lead, the Highlanders continued to build on and sustain as they possessed a double-figures edge (38-28 NJIT) with less than two minutes remaining in the first. 

Was NJIT really going to run away with this one? "Not so fast my friend!"

Drilling a triple with 1:38 to go until the intermission, leading scorer and "fab freshman" Federico Mussini spurred a 7-1 spurt to end the half, which drew the Red Strom within four (39-35).

Coming out of the locker room with momentum, St. John's Christian Jones used the morale booster to successfully probe NJIT's defense leading to a converted "and one" and a Mussini "twine tickler" from downtown. 41-39 Red Storm! But not for long as Lynn netted another three-pointer to steal back the lead (18:12 mark in 2nd half). We had ourselves a ball game!

Just like a replica of the beginning of the contest, St. John's and NJIT went back to matching each other's points until the Highlanders "bad man" (Lynn) led a 15-0 run with 9 of his game-high 32, to produce their largest lead of the day (62-50 with 9:46 left). 

Although the Red Storm were eventually able to storm back, it took more than 6 minutes before they were able to make a dent in the deficit. Though as previously alluded to, Mullin's group was right in the game, for they were only down 3 with less than a minute remaining (75-72). Or that was until Lynn made a jumper in the lane to extend his team's lead to five. With time running off quickly, Mussini attempted a trey to wither their deficit. Clank! The Highlanders' Tim Coleman came down with the rebound, made both of his attempts from the charity stripe, and St. John's had their second straight home loss.

Don't Forget About Us

On December 6, 2014, Jim Engles' NJIT Highlanders traveled to Ann Arbor and achieved the upset of the century on nationally ranked Michigan. Today's win, was just as impressive. Led by "jazzy junior" Damon Lynn's 32 points and Chris Jenkins double-double (19 points and 11 rebounds), NJIT upset their second power conference opponent of the season (also took down South Florida on November 16). However, it wasn't just the two players carrying the load since as a team, the Highlanders shot 52.1% (34.3% by St. John's ) from the floor and 55.0% (25.0% by St. John's) from beyond the arc. NJIT will enjoy eight days off before their next game at home against Stony Brook.

Not a Good Sign

If Queens wasn't panicking when the St. John's Red Storm fell on the road to Fordham or Friday night to Incarnate Word, today has brought a cloud of concern. Falling to two fairly new Division I schools in a span of two days is truly unacceptable for any power conference school. Unacceptable! Furthermore, with two perfect opponents (South Carolina and Xavier) and another ranked (Providence) in the next four, these winnable games were essential to come out on top of. Good luck in Big East play St. John's, because you are going to need it.