Another Tough Loss for St. John’s

Three minutes into the second half of the Connecticut-St. John’s game at a sold-out Madison Square Garden on Saturday, the No. 1-ranked Huskies were down by 12 points and it looked as if the nation’s last unbeaten team was headed for defeat.

Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun called a rare timeout, not the 20-second variety, a full timeout.

“I didn’t say much and didn’t have to because they hadn’t been in that situation before,� he said. “Ricky [Moore] said something and Khalid [El-Amin] said, ‘This can’t happen.’ They came out and found an old friend, second-half defense.�

Connecticut outscored St. John’s 10-0 after the timeout, then went on a late 11-0 run that led to a 78-74 victory.

“That was as competitive a game as I’ve seen,� said Calhoun, whose team is 19-0 overall and 11-0 in the Big East Conference. “We earned it. If we lost today, we wouldn’t have lost, we would have been beaten.�

For No. 9 St. John’s (17-5, 8-2), it was a another frustrating loss at Madison Square Garden against one of the nation’s best teams. The Red Storm lost to No. 2 Duke, 92-88, in overtime last Sunday, and by two points to No. 3 Stanford in November.

“Forget hung with. We’ve been in position to beat every one of those teams,� said St. John’s Coach Mike Jarvis, whose team’s five losses have been by a total of 15 points. “We’re not ready yet. There are just one or two little things they do better than us. The beautiful thing is there are eight or nine regular season games left, then the Big East tournament, and then we’ll be in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, after those games, we can talk about how we learned.�

Bootsy Thornton, who scored 40 points in points in the loss to Duke, was guarded closely by Moore--the Huskies’ defensive specialist--and got 15 points, three in the second half. Moore also made two free throws with 25 seconds left to give Connecticut a 76-72 lead.

“Once we got on a roll and started pushing the ball, it was hard to beat us,� Moore said. “I knew it was time to step up and we did it as a team.�

Lavor Postell of St. John’s led all players with 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Richard Hamilton had 22 points and eight rebounds for Connecticut.

Ron Artest, who had 14 points for St. John’s, was asked to compare Connecticut and Duke.

“Connecticut is one of the most arrogant teams,� said Artest, “but they always back it up.�

No. 2 Duke 80, North Carolina State 61--The Blue Devils (21-1, 9-0) ended the Atlantic Coast Conference game against the Wolfpack (13-8, 3-6) at Raleigh, N.C., with a 19-6 run.

It was the 16th victory in a row and ninth by double-digits over ACC teams for Duke, which was coming off emotional wins over St. John’s and North Carolina. The Blue Devils play No. 4 Maryland at Durham, N.C., on Wednesday.

North Carolina State’s Adam Harrington, who had 26 points against Duke in the first meeting between the teams, got his fourth foul two minutes into the second half and finished with seven points.

No. 5 Cincinnati 73, Alabama Birmingham 60--The Bearcats (20-1, 7-1) overcame a sluggish start against the Blazers (15-7, 6-3) in the Conference USA game at Cincinnati and got their 20th victory faster than any team in school history. It was also Cincinnati’s eighth consecutive season with 20 or more victories under Coach Bob Huggins.

Cincinnati missed 13 of its first 16 shots, prompting Huggins to call timeouts twice to scream at his players. The Bearcats finally got rolling with a 24-8 run late in the first half and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half.

No. 6 Kentucky 86, Louisiana State 62-- Guard Wayne Turner scored 14 points and became the 46th player to get 1,000 for the Wildcats (19-4, 8-1) in their Southeastern Conference victory over the Tigers (10-8, 2-7) at Lexington, Ky.

The win was Kentucky’s 300th at Rupp Arena, the 23-year-old facility named for longtime coach Adolph Rupp, who won 876 games from 1931-72.

Eleven different Kentucky players scored, including four in double figures. Center Jamaal Magloire had 10 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.

No. 7 Auburn 85, Georgia 74--The Tigers (20-1, 8-1) equaled the best start in school history, leading the Bulldogs (12-9, 3-6) by as many as 21 points in the SEC game at Athens, Ga.

Freshman Mack McGadney led Auburn with 17 points. He has averaged 14 points in the three games since becoming a starter in place of suspended leading scorer and rebounder Chris Porter.

Georgia’s Jumaine Jones, the SEC’s leading scorer at 21.2 points a game, had seven points.

No. 8 Michigan State 65, Northwestern 48--Andre Hutson, who scored 13 points in five previous games, had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Big Ten-leading Spartans (18-4, 7-1) at East Lansing, Mich.

Evan Eschmeyer, the only Division I player averaging double figures in scoring and rebounding, had 15 points and nine rebounds for Northwestern (12-6, 4-4).

No. 12 Wisconsin 61, No. 19 Minnesota 50--Fifth-year senior guards Ty Calderwood and Sean Mason combined for 34 points to lead the Badgers (19-3, 7-2) past the Golden Gophers (13-5, 4-4) in the Big Ten game at Madison, Wis.

Calderwood had 18 points, including eight of final 10 points for Wisconsin, which is off to its best Big Ten start since 1961-62.

Minnesota’s Quincy Lewis, the Big Ten’s leading scorer at 25 points a game, had 28.

No. 15 Ohio State 64, Illinois 61--The Buckeyes (16-6, 6-3 in the Big Ten) won only their second road game as a three-point basket with 1.4 seconds left by Cory Bradford of the Illini (9-12, 1-8) not allowed at Champaign, Ill.

Ohio State’s Brian Brown was called for a foul just before Bradford made a shot that would have tied the game. Bradford, who had a career-high 29 points, then missed two free throws.

“I was worried the referee wasn’t going to call it and [Bradford] was going to just continue to go by me and obviously he hit the three,� Brown said. “So I was a little worried until the ref called the foul. He told me to foul a little bit harder next time, make it more obvious.�

No. 16 Iowa 81, Michigan 68--The Hawkeyes (15-4, 6-3) compiled a 37-17 rebounding advantage against the Wolverines (9-13, 3-6) in the Big Ten game at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Reserve Jacob Jaacks had a career-high 15 points to lead Iowa, which got 37 points from its nonstarters while Michigan got only four. Wolverine guards Robbie Reid and Louis Bullock had 22 and 18 points, respectively.

Former coach Johnny Orr was honored at halftime along with Campy Russell and the rest of the 1973-74 Michigan team that went 25-5 and reached the NCAA Mideast Regional final. After leaving Michigan, Orr coached at Iowa State.

No. 17 Syracuse 76, Seton Hall 62--Jason Hart matched his career-high for the second consecutive game with 24 points as the Orangemen (15-6, 6-5) handed the Pirates (11-9, 5-6) their first home loss in 11 games at East Rutherford, N.J.

Ryan Blackwell had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Syracuse.

No. 18 New Mexico 78, Brigham Young 68--The Lobos (17-4, 4-2) went on a 17-2 run after a shattered backboard halted play in the second half of the Western Athletic Conference game at Albuquerque.

Bret Jepsen broke the glass on the backboard at the north end of The Pit with a dunk that got BYU (8-11, 3-4) within 51-43 with 17:42 remaining. The Cougars went scoreless the next five minutes 21 seconds--a span in which Lobo freshman guard John Robinson scored eight of his 14 points

Mississippi 89, No. 21 Arkansas 81--Senior guard Keith Carter, a native of Arkansas, tied a career high with 33 points in the SEC game at Oxford, Miss., as the Rebels (15-7, 5-4) defeated the Razorbacks (15-6, 4-4) for the second time this season. Seven of Mississippi’s players are from Arkansas.

The Rebels fell behind 10-0, but never trailed after a 16-5 run in which Carter scored seven points.

No. 22 Kansas 77, Colorado 74--Freshman Jeff Boschee made a three-point shot with eight seconds left as the Jayhawks (14-6, 6-2) defeated the Buffaloes (11-10, 2-6) for the 18th consecutive time in the Big 12 game at Lawrence, Kan., and avoided their first three-game losing streak since 1991.

Jaquay Walls missed a three-point shot at the buzzer for Colorado, which railed by as many as 17 points in the first half.

Pittsburgh 60, No. 23 Miami (Fla.) 54--The Hurricanes (13-5, 7-3) lost guards Vernon Jennings (back spasms) and Michael Simmons (concussion) the opening minutes of the Big East game at Pittsburgh and the Panthers (11-9, 2-7) took advantage.

Pittsburgh guards Kellii Taylor and Vonteego Cummings scored 17 and 14 points, respectively. Taylor was playing his third game after missing six while undergoing alcohol rehabilitation. Last Saturday, he was scoreless in 21 minutes in a home-court loss to Georgetown.

Rice 76, No. 24 Texas Christian 69--The Horned Frogs (15-6, 3-4) lost their three consecutive WAC game as leading scorer Lee Nailon, returning from a one-game suspension for fighting, was only six-for-18 shooting with 15 points at Houston.

Rice’s Robert Johnson, the WAC’s leading scorer at 22.5 points a game, had 24 points while teammate Alex Bougaieff had 14 points and 18 rebounds--nearly 11 above his season average.

Mississippi State 66, No. 25 Florida 63--The Bulldogs (14-8, 4-5) overcame a 12-point deficit in the second half at Starkville, Miss.

Florida (15-4, 6-3) scored the first seven points of the game and led until Teddy Myles’ layup capped a 15-2 run that put Mississippi State ahead 47-46 with 16:02 left. Neither team led by more than two points in the final 11 minutes until Myles made a three-point shot for the game’s final points with 23 seconds left.

OTHER GAMES

BJ McKie became the leading scorer in South Carolina history with 19 points as the Gamecocks (7-13, 2-6) were 69-57 winners over Vanderbilt (11-9, 2-6) in the SEC game at Columbia, S.C. McKie’s 1,974 points moves him past NBA Hall of Famer Alex English, who had 1,972 points for the Gamecocks from 1973-76. McKie broke the record at 8:33 with a layup through traffic. The game was halted, McKie got the game ball, a standing ovation and a hug from English. . . . Jermaine Medley made a three-point shot at the buzzer to give Villanova (16-6, 7-5) a 93-90 double-overtime victory over Georgetown (9-11, 2-9) in a Big East game at Philadelphia. The Hoyas are 2-5 under Craig Esherick, who took over for John Thompson on Jan. 8. The losses are by a total of 15 points. . . . Quentin Richardson, the nation’s leading freshman scorer and rebounder, had 29 points and 15 rebounds to lead DePaul (11-8, 5-4) to an 87-79 Conference USA victory over Tulane (9-9, 3-6) at New Orleans. . . . James Posey had 32 points, making all 14 of his free throws, but that wasn’t enough as Xavier of Ohio (15-6, 7-1 in the Atlantic 10) was a 91-86 loser at Dayton (9-10, 4-5). There were 77 fouls, with Dayton taking 17 more free throws and making 35 of 41. . . . Alex Jensen scored a career-high 22 points and a game-high 10 rebounds as Utah (16-4, 6-0 in the WAC) was a 64-54 winner at Texas El Paso (12-8, 4-3). . . . Donnie Johnson had 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead Utah State (11-8, 4-4) to a 61-54 victory over New Mexico State (15-6, 7-1) in a Big West game at Logan, Utah.