The St. John's Red Storm forced 26 turnovers and defeated the visiting La Salle Explorers 82-65 on Thursday afternoon in a nonconference game in New York City.

Junior college transfer Vince Cole, a 6-foot-5 wing making his first Division I start, scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Storm (2-0). Cole scored 21 points off the bench in Wednesday's win over Saint Peters.

The Storm also got 14 points from Marcellus Earlington and 13 from Greg Williams Jr.

Storm true freshman point guard Posh Alexander continued to impress, especially on defense, recording three steals. He also had eight points and four assists.

Ayinde Hikim sored 14 points, Christian Ray scored 12, Jhamir Brickus added 11 and Sherif Kenney posted 10 points for La Salle, which played the 90th season opener in program history. The Explorers never led the Storm at any point of the game.

La Salle's two top returning scorers -- David Beatty and Scott Spencer -- were scoreless in the first half, combining to miss all five of their shots. Spencer actually led the Atlantic 10 Conference last season in 3-point shooting (43.8 percent), but he finished with just one point on Thursday. Beatty had five points.

St. John's made a pair of changes from its Wednesday starting lineup. Rasheem Dunn sat out due to a concussion suffered Wednesday. Earlington, who had a tooth knocked out during the Saint Peter's game, was used off the bench versus La Salle.

The Storm's new starters were Cole and 6-9 forward Josh Roberts (four points, four rebounds, game-high four steals, team-high two blocks).

Julian Champagnie, St. John's leading returning scorer, missed his second straight game due to a sprained ankle.

St. John's got off to a 5-0 start and went into halftime with a 34-28 advantage.

Neither team shot well in the first half. St. John's converted on 36.7 percent, and La Salle shot 37.5 percent. The turnovers were also ugly: 14 by LaSalle and 11 by St. John's. And neither team had a player with as many as eight first-half points.

St. John's stretched its lead to 19 points in the second half. La Salle used an 8-0 run to cut its deficit to 69-61 with 3:42 left, but the Storm cruised from there.

For the game, St. John's shot 45.2 percent. LaSalle shot 38.9 percent.

--Field Level Media