D.J. Kennedy scored 15 points as St. John's beats Louisville 74-55

NEW YORK — D.J. Kennedy scored 15 points, Justin Burrell matched his season high with 14 and St. John’s snapped a five-game losing streak with a 74-55 victory over Louisville on Thursday night.

The Red Storm (13-10, 3-8 Big East) broke [...]]]> Associated Press

D.J. Kennedy scored 15 points as St. John's beats Louisville 74-55

NEW YORK — D.J. Kennedy scored 15 points, Justin Burrell matched his season high with 14 and St. John’s snapped a five-game losing streak with a 74-55 victory over Louisville on Thursday night.

The Red Storm (13-10, 3-8 Big East) broke the streak on a night the 1984-85 Final Four team was honored at Madison Square Garden. More importantly, they ended a run of blowing halftime leads.

D.J. Kennedy scored 15 points and Justin Burrell matched his season high with 14 for St. John’s (13-10, 3-8 Big East), which hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2002 and has had five losing seasons in the last six years.

“It’s always great to play in front of those guys. It’s just great being around those guys,” Red Storm coach Norm Roberts said of the team that featured Chris Mullin, Walter Berry and Mark Jackson and was coached by Hall of Famer Lou Carnesecca. “It was great for those guys to see how hard these young men are working to bring St. John’s back to prominence.”

Samardo Samuels had 18 points for the Cardinals (15-9, 6-5), who committed 16 turnovers, went 9 of 18 from the free throw line and missed 10 of their first 11 3-point attempts. Louisville had its lowest point total of the season, 25 below its season average.

“It was our worst game of the season, but I think St. John’s had a lot to do with that with the way they play defense,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “Four or five of our guys had their poorest game of the season, but that’s due to their great defense.”

The Red Storm ended a run of blowing halftime leads. St. John’s was in front at halftime for the fourth time in five games and the others all turned into losses to ranked teams – Pittsburgh, Villanova and West Virginia. The latest of those games was the worst with the Red Storm seeing a 43-30 lead with 13:30 to play turn into a 79-60 loss to the fifth-ranked Mountaineers.

“We’ve played well in the first half and had lulls that hurt us,” Roberts said. “Today we put 40 minutes together. I told them after the game, ‘Remember this. Bottle this. This is what we did. We didn’t do anything extraordinary. We didn’t make 12 3s. All we did was play very hard, rebounded, stayed together and made plays when we had to.’”

Kennedy said the Red Storm just tried to keep up the intensity from the first half when they took a 33-23 lead.

“We know we’re used to having the lead at halftime and then things go wrong for us,” he said. “We basically just tried to keep communicating with each other and just keep the intensity and the energy up.”

The 25th anniversary of the last St. John’s team to be ranked No. 1 and reach the Final Four was celebrated with a halftime ceremony. Many in the crowd of 5,748 had to be thinking Louisville had St. John’s right where it wanted them.

This time, the Red Storm broke from a 40-34 lead with an 11-0 run that was part of a 27-5 spurt that put them ahead 67-39 with 4:10 left.

“Today we rebounded for 40 minutes, played great defense for 40 minutes,” Kennedy said. “We ain’t shoot too good for the whole game, but our defense was there for 40 minutes. Any time you got defense there for 40 minutes, your chances of winning are great.”

The Cardinals closed within 40-34 when Preston Knowles hit their first 3 of the game with 15:25 to go.

Instead of folding like the recent games, the Red Storm took off on their run and Louisville looked lost the rest of the game.

“I think you have to give credit when credit is due,” said Louisville guard Edgar Sosa, who finished 0 for 6 from the field with five turnovers. “They were playing great defense, They took us out of a lot of our sets.”

Pitino, who coached the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, was the subject of another NBA rumor earlier Thursday. The New York Daily News, citing unidentified sources, said Pitino was interested in the New Jersey Nets job.

“When someone speaks an untruth it’s a bit of a distraction,” he said after the game. “I want to just concentrate on coaching and playing. When people speak an untruth, it bothers you. There is no truth to it. … I’ve been at Louisville for nine years and I want to coach till I’m 65 and I hope it’s at Louisville and I hope they’ll have me. It’s a distraction, a nuisance.”

Sosa said it didn’t affect the team.

“Not at all,” he said. “I don’t think anybody on the team spoke about it. I mean we heard about it this morning, but that had nothing to do with the game.”

Dwight hardy stole two in-bounds passes and made four free throws in the last 8.5 seconds to seal the Red Storm win.

lsadunit_publisherId = 'bcAqlbGI2Wo'; lsadunit_oid = '191766'; lsadunit_width = 300; lsadunit_height = 250; lsadunit_uid = '2018008'; [...]]]> Associated Press

Dwight hardy stole two in-bounds passes and made four free throws in the last 8.5 seconds to seal the Red Storm win.

NEW YORK — Dwight Hardy knew how much St. John‘s needed a win. He and his teammates had another thought on their minds as well — ruin Lance Stephenson’s homecoming.

Hardy matched his career high with 19 points, including the tying and winning free throws in the final 8.5 seconds, and the Red Storm snapped a three-game losing streak with a 52-50 victory over Cincinnati and its heralded freshman on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“We just wanted to spoil his homecoming basically,” Hardy said. “They needed a win but we needed it more being that we didn’t have a win in Big East play. So we just wanted to get in his head and keep him from scoring as many points as possible.”

Stephenson struggled all game but it did seem he and the Bearcats were going to be on the right end of the final score but they couldn’t get the ball inbounds in the final 10 seconds and Hardy turned the two turnovers into the deciding free throws.

“Our guys really stayed tough at the end of the game and made some huge plays,” St. John’s coach Norm Roberts said. “Hardy stepped in there and made some plays.”

Hardy stole a long inbounds pass by Rashad Bishop, was fouled with 8.5 seconds left and made both free throws to tie the game at 50.

He then stole another inbounds pass by Bishop — this one at the free throw line — and was fouled as he went to shoot with 7.6 seconds left. Hardy made both free throws and Deonta Vaughn‘s 3 for the win with a second left bounced off the rim.

Hardy finished 6 of 6 at the free throw line, while the Red Storm (11-5, 1/3 Big East) were 11 of 20. Hardy came into the game shooting 71 percent at the line.

“What we have to do, in the last 10 seconds, is not blow the game,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “They are a good team, they have good players and are in a must-win situation. We met the challenge and had the game won. I am not going to act like the sky is falling. We had the game won. There are a lot of positives except the last 10 seconds.”

Yancy Gates had 12 points to lead the Bearcats (11-6, 2-3), while Stephenson had seven points on 3-of-9 shooting, five assists and six of Cincinnati’s season-high 21 turnovers.

Stephenson, New York’s all-time leading high school scorer with 2,946 points at Lincoln H.S., was booed by the St. John’s fans in the crowd every time he touched the ball.

“I don’t worry about the crowd. I just play the game,” Stephenson said. “You can’t worry about the crowd, what they say or do.”

The Bearcats entered the game last in the 16-team Big East in 3-point shooting at 29.4 percent and they missed all 12 shots they took behind the arc on Wednesday.

Stephenson lost for the first time at Madison Square Garden after winning four New York City championship games here. The Red Storm have played a lot more games than that here.

“Every time you win at the Garden, it’s awesome. Every time you win a Big East game, it’s awesome. Because it’s hard, very hard,” Roberts said. “I keep telling my team that we’re going to have to grind out a win. … Because we’re really, really close. So I’m really happy that we were able to get the victory today.”

Lance Stephenson was asked repeatedly by New York reporters why he chose UC over St. John’s. “I felt Cincinnati was more of a family and I felt Mick (Cronin) could help me be a better player,” Stephenson said. “I felt that he was a better coach.”

NEW YORK — Lance Stephenson has caused [...]]]> Associated Press

Lance Stephenson was asked repeatedly by New York reporters why he chose UC over St. John’s. “I felt Cincinnati was more of a family and I felt Mick (Cronin) could help me be a better player,” Stephenson said. “I felt that he was a better coach.”

NEW YORK — Lance Stephenson has caused St. John’s nothing but embarrassment. Wednesday night the Red Storm will try to turn the tables when the former Lincoln High star returns as a Cincinnati freshman for the Johnnies’ first Big East game at the Garden this season.

Stephenson, the all-time leading scorer in the history of New York state prep basketball while playing at Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School, will play in Madison Square Garden against St. John’s, a school that recruited him before losing out to UC and coach Mick Cronin.

St. John’s (10-5, 0-3) coveted Stephenson when he was the city’s top recruit. Coach Norm Roberts saw him as a potential centerpiece for a breakthrough season and pied piper for the city blue-chippers who have eluded the Red Storm for most of a decade. As it turned out, recruiting the 6-5 swingman did the Johnnies more harm than good.

They were in his announced final three with Kansas and Maryland. When the Jayhawks and Terrapins dropped out, Stephenson humiliated St. John’s by not committing. Ultimately Roberts had to announce that St. John’s had stopped recruiting him. Soon after, Stephenson committed to the Bearcats.

Then he showed Roberts little respect when he explained his decision on Monday.

“At St. John’s I felt the players were good, plus I knew some of the players who were on the team already – that’s why St. John’s was on my list,” Stephenson said. “I felt Cincinnati was more of a family and I felt (coach) Mick (Cronin) could help me be a better player, and I felt like he was a better coach.”

Roberts said he was “not offended,” but Johnnies Paris Horne, Sean Evans and Justin Burrell all lauded Roberts for improving their games.

“You can use it as bulletin board (material). You could use it as inspiration,” Horne said. “We’re just worrying about this game because we need this game.”

That’s an understatement. St. John’s was in position to win its first three Big East games before unraveling late. After the Red Storm was outhustled in the second half at Louisville last Saturday, the team held a players-only meeting at the airport before the flight home to address the losing and make sure, in Burrell’s words, “everyone is pulling the oars in the same direction.”

“I would describe it as necessary,” Evans said of the meeting. “To be a good team on the court, you have to be a good team off the court. Talking starts that.”

Stephenson, averaging 4.8 rebounds, 2.8assists and a team-high 12.7 points, can’t wait to get back on the floor where he helped Lincoln win four public school titles. Because he didn’t pick the Storm, he expects a hostile reception.

“Everybody wanted me to go somewhere close to home,” Stephenson said. “I think at the Garden they’re going to boo me much harder than Rutgers did (Jan. 2). It makes me play harder.”

LOUISVILLE — Jared Swopshire scored 14 points and Louisville defeated St. John‘s 75-68 on Saturday.

The Cardinals (12-4, 3-0 Big East) and the Red Storm (10-5, 0-3) were forced to grind the first half out due to sloppy ball-handling and poor shooting. Both teams were able to sustain small runs, with Dwight Hardy’s 3-pointer [...]]]> Associated Press

LOUISVILLE — Jared Swopshire scored 14 points and Louisville defeated St. John‘s 75-68 on Saturday.

The Cardinals (12-4, 3-0 Big East) and the Red Storm (10-5, 0-3) were forced to grind the first half out due to sloppy ball-handling and poor shooting. Both teams were able to sustain small runs, with Dwight Hardy’s 3-pointer at the buzzer to give St. Johns a 32-28 halftime lead.

Louisville shot 33 percent (10-for-30) in the first half, including 16 percent (2-for-12) from 3-point range. The Red Storm managed to shoot 39 percent (11-for-28).

The second half was played close until a 12-1 run by the Cardinals with midway through the second half gave Louisville a 58-46 lead at the 7:51 mark. St. Johns would mount a late rally to close the final scoring margin to seven.

Jerry Smith led the Cardinals with 16 points.

D.J. Kennedy led all scorers with 20 points for the Red Storm.