St. John’s 94, Franklin Pierce 81: D'Angelo Harrison had 31 points and a career-high 17 rebounds in his first breakout performance of the year, and the Red Storm bounced back to rally past the visiting Ravens.

Harrison, limited to just 20 minutes in a 77-58 season-opening victory over NJIT on Friday night, led an impressive 21-0 run to start the second half. St. John's (2-0) woke up and dodged an embarrassing upset in an NIT Season Tip-Off game that the Red Storm trailed at the half.

Playing its third game in three days, Franklin Pierce (2-1), a Division II school from Rindge, N.H., led 50-43 at the break, and received 29 points,10 rebounds, two blocks and an assist from Ryen Vilmont. The Ravens stormed into the locker room on a high after a Paul Becklens layup at the buzzer, but clearly ran out of steam in the latter 20 minutes and showed the effects of a busy early schedule.

Rysheed Jordan had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Red Storm, and Phil Greene added 18 points and two steals as St. John’s opened with consecutive wins for just the third time in coach Steve Lavin’s five years at the Big East school. The Red Storm outrebounded Franklin Pierce, 49-26, as Lavin continues to work on lineup combinations that can help down low while two big men – Keith Thomas and Adonis Delarosa – sit out with academic eligibility problems.

Becklens was 7-of-8 from the free-throw line and finished with 16 points, five assists and two steals, but the Ravens scored just four points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. In that same time span, Harrison had two 3-pointers and 12 points, keying the Red Storm’s second home victory in four days.

GAME NOTEBOOK: This was the first meeting between the two schools. ... Harrison, a senior, is ninth on the St. John’s career scoring list with 1,642 points. ... G Jamal Branch contributed a game-high six assists off the bench for the Red Storm.