"Give Marist a lot of credit," Roberts offered. "We took a lead on them and they made some huge plays and some huge shots to come back. We made some bonehead plays but we toughed it out. We have to just play a bit smarter."

He's right. While Marist and St. John's both shot an identical 42.3 percent from the floor and each turned the ball over on 15 separate occasions, the Johnnies struggled from three-point range at 25 percent and gave up 10 defensive rebounds to a team that's biggest starter is a generous 6-foot-8.

Roberts' team, however, did get a balanced scoring attack and defensive effort from Anthony Mason, Jr. (12 points, four rebounds), Tomas Jasiulionis (12 points, five rebounds) and Justin Burrell (10 points and team-best seven rebounds).

But senior Eugene Lawrence proved to be just as big down the stretch, making plays as a senior should with the game on the line by attacking the basket and getting to the rim to secure the win with a layup.

"It was huge," Roberts said of the play by Lawrence. "Geno had driven in there a couple of times and they backed off of him. He continued to go in there and he made that play. He's a senior and we needed him to make that play."

It's not the first time, though, Roberts has seen Lawrence thrive when games are hanging in the balance. And St. John's fans sure hope it's something that continues the rest of the season. Because, after all, the Red Storm is going to need everything it's got in going up against Big East staples like Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Marquette -- we shouldn't be forgetting about a quality West Virginia club in addition to solid ones at Notre Dame, Villanova, Syracuse and even UConn, too.

"He does it instinctively," Roberts said about Lawrence's ability to take over at the end of games. "He knows the pressure of the game. He knows I want the ball in his hands and I want him to attack."

For Marist, 6-foot-1 freshman Jay Gavin stepped up to lead all scorers with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, including 3-of-7 from three. Senior guard Louie McCroskey, meanwhile, was the other double-digit scorer at 12 (6-for-11 from the floor) for the Red Foxes, who fell to 6-6 on the season. Three Marist players -- Ryan Stillphen, Spongy Benjamin and David Devezin -- finished with nine points.

"We came in this game knowing that St. John's defense is very good," Marist coach Matt Brady said in what was one of the fastest interviews of all-time (especially for the Garden). "The numbers don't lie. I told them at the half, we were going to get a lead.

"I give St. John's a lot of credit. They are a gutsy group of guys. We had the lead and it got away from us. We need to learn how to do that [keep that lead] and that is my responsibility."

For every coach, including Roberts, there's a lot more work to be done, and it starts tomorrow when the Johnnies hit the floor at 4 p.m. ET against a Hokie team led by two strong veteran players in Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo who combined for nearly 40 percent (34 points) of Virginia Tech's offense tonight. Add in Jeff Allen's 17, too, and you got yourself a real handful to deal with in tomorrow evening's Holiday Festival championship game.

"Every victory is important going into conference play," he said. "We want to play our best going into conference play. We just have a young group. You have to ride that wave a little bit. The nice thing about them is their perseverance and that they come back and hopefully we will be better tomorrow."

For all of New York City (and I'm not even a native!), we sure hope so. Signing off for the night...