St. John’s rips Fordham behind Joel Soriano’s double-double

Joel Soriano collected 20 points and 10 rebounds against his former school as St. John's never trailed and pulled away for a 77-55 victory over Fordham on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Against the school he played 44 games for, Soriano shot 9-for-15 and notched his fifth 20-point game this season. The center also finished with his sixth double-double and 32nd since the start of last season. He added three blocks.

Soriano's performance helped St. John's (7-3) win for the fifth time in six games and bounce back from allowing Boston College to shoot 56 percent in Sunday's 86-80 loss.

Chris Ledlum added 11 points and was the only other double-figure scorer for the Red Storm, who shot 43.5 percent and survived missing 12 of 18 3-point tries and eight free throws.

Josh Rivera scored 15 points but shot 3-of-13 as the Rams (5-6) shot a ghastly 25.4 percent and missed 16 of 18 3-point attempts. Abdou Tsimbila added 12 as Fordham lost for the third time in four games and was held under 60 points for the second time.

Fordham's other three starters -- Japhet Medor, Kyle Rose and Antrell Charlton -- combined for 15 points on 2-for-21 from the field.

The Red Storm scored the first eight points and took an 18-8 lead on Nahiem Alleyne's jumper with 11:58 remaining. Nearly five minutes later, Alleyne hit a layup for a 30-12 lead, but Fordham was within 39-28 by halftime after outscoring St. John's 16-9.

Fordham sliced the deficit to 41-33 on Rose's jumper 63 seconds into the second half but St. John's opened a 53-35 lead on a putback by Sean Conway five minutes later.

The Rams trailed 53-41 on Tsimbila's hook shot with 9:45 to go but Soriano scored eight points in the Red Storm's 16-5 spurt that pushed the margin to 69-46 with 4:41 left to essentially finish it off.