St. John's Sneaks Past Lehigh, 78-73

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 10: Head coach Steve Lavin of the St. John's Red Storm reacts from the bench near the end of the first half against the Syracuse Orange during the quarterfinals of the 2011 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament presented by American Eagle Outfitters at Madison Square Garden on March 10, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

The St. John's University men's basketball head coach Steve Lavin returned to the bench Wednesday night and witnessed his Johnnies use a 12-0, second-half run to come-from-behind and beat Lehigh University, 78-73.

Junior center God's Gift Achiuwa scored 11 of his team-best 21 points in the second half Wednesday night to help the St. John's University men's basketball program erase a late 14-point deficit and beat Lehigh University, 78-73, in a non-conference match up at Carnesecca Arena in Queens. The victory was the first of the season for head coach Steve Lavin, who surprisingly returned to the bench after missing all of the Red Storm's preseason games and season-opener because of prostate cancer surgery, Oct. 6.

St. John's (2-0) trailed 60-46 with 11:09 remaining, but used a 12-0 run to close the gap to just 60-58 with 5:49 remaining in the game. The Johnnies took its first lead, 68-67, when freshman forward Sir'Dominic Pointer made a transition lay up with 2:22 remaining.

From there, both teams traded the lead once more before St. John's used a 5-0 run to sneak away with its second straight come-from-behind win of the season.

Achiuwa also collected a team-best eight rebounds, while freshman forward Moe Harkless netted 15 points. Pointer finished with six points.

C.J. McCollum posted a team-best 19 points for Lehigh (0-1), which is from Bethlehem, PA and plays in the Patriot League.