St. John's beats Molloy 71-43 behind Ponds, Ahmed (Nov 20, 2017)

NEW YORK (AP) Shamorie Ponds scored 14 points with six rebounds, Bashir Ahmed had five boards and 14 points and St. John's beat Division II Molloy 71-43 on Monday for its first 4-0 season start since 2014-15.

Marvin Clark II added 10 points and Justin Simon had seven points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for St. John's, which outrebounded the Lions 43-35 and scored 26 points off of 21 Molloy turnovers.

Back-to-back dunks by Marcus LoVett and Ahmed capped the 22-2 run St. John's used to open the second half and they led by as many as 29 on Amar Alibegovic's layup with 1:04 to play. Clark's jumper put St. John's up for good, 17-16, after three lead changes and the Red Storm led 28-21 at halftime after shooting 33 percent from the field.

Curtis Jenkins led Molloy with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Justin Caldwell had nine boards.