By Morris Phillips

The Bears, with their cast of unheralded underclassmen, appeared to be quite a match for St. John’s and pre-season Big East Player of the Year Shamorie Ponds on Monday in Brooklyn.

At least for 37 of the game’s 40 minutes they were. That’s when the hometown hero took over.

The Red Storm overcame a late, seven point deficit to the Bears as Ponds scored 16 of his game-best 32 points in the final seven minutes, leading St. John’s past Cal 82-79 at the Barclays Center.

“The crowd got us into it late in the game, so it feels good to be home,” said Brooklyn native Ponds about the Red Storm’s late surge.

Cal’s last lead came with 2:39 remaining when Andre Kelly hit a jumper. But Ponds would score nine of St. John’s final 10 points in their closing run. His 32-point performance marked the seventh time the junior guard has surpassed 30 points in his career.

The Bears stayed in it most of the night by making contested shots, rebounding and not committing turnovers. The Bears trailed 38-31 at halftime, but opened the second half with a 9-2 run.

Darius McNeill led Cal with 21 points, and four of his five made 3-pointers came before the break. Justice Sueing finished with 19 points, and 14 of those came after halftime. The Bears shot 57 percent from the field and 81 percent from the foul line. But they weren’t the well-oiled offensive machine they aspire to be despite the superior field goal percentage, tallying just 10 assists on 29 made baskets.

Ultimately, Cal couldn’t get St. John’s stopped defensively at key junctures of the game. The Red Storm shot 55 percent and held a slight edge on the glass (27-23).

“They were hitting tough shots,” St. John’s Justin Simon said. “They’re a great team that’s well-coached. We were trying to give them difficult looks.”

St. John’s (4-0) advances to the championship game Tuesday against VCU. The Bears (1-2) will face Temple in the third-place game preceding St. John’s-VCU at the Barclays Center.

This was the first ever meeting between Cal and St. John’s, coached by Warriors’ legends Chris Mullin and associate head coach Mitch Richmond.

“We got back on our heels a little bit tonight, but I was happy the way we regrouped and got the win,” Mullin said. “[Tuesday] will be nice. It’s always nice to play a high-stakes game early in the season against a good team, and we’ll be jacked up.”

Cal returns home to host Santa Clara on Monday at 6:00 pm PT on the Pac-12 Network.