St. John’s Dukes It Out for a Second Year

This time, second-ranked Duke didn’t pass Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s annual late-season test.

Bootsy Thornton made an 18-foot shot with 13 seconds left for the decisive basket in St. John’s 83-82 victory over Duke Saturday at Durham, N.C.

“We didn’t play poorly,” said Krzyzewski, who likes his team to play against a tough non-Atlantic Coast Conference team in late February. “If we would have played poorly we would have gotten run out of the gym. They are . . . [experienced], well-coached and play with a lot of heart. In a one-game situation they are really a dangerous team.”

Duke beat St. John’s in overtime at Madison Square Garden last season as Thornton scored 40 points, and this game in steamy Cameron Indoor Stadium was just as exciting as the Red Storm (20-6) won its seventh in a row--including victories over No. 13 Syracuse and No. 22 Connecticut this week.

“This has been an incredible week,” St. John’s Coach Mike Jarvis said. “It’s too bad the season doesn’t end now.”

Thornton scored 22 points this time to go with 11 rebounds and six assists. Carlos Boozer scored 21 points and Nate James had 20 for Duke.

Duke (22-4) had a chance to win it in the final seconds, but Chris Carrawell’s 15-foot shot bounced off the rim and into the corner as time ran out.

“If we hit the shot at the end, I’m not sure that we deserved to win as much as they did,” Krzyzewski said. “Overall, I thought they played better than we did.”

The loss was only Duke’s third against a nonconference team in Cameron since 1983--a span of 129 games.

Duke trailed by one point at halftime and 75-70 with 5:57 left before James and Jason Williams made consecutive three-point shots.

The lead changed three times over the final 1:18 as St. John’s Chudney Gray made two free throws, James had a three-point with 44.7 seconds left and Thornton made his game-decider after two offensive rebounds on the same possession.

Alabama 80, No. 7 Tennessee 75--Terrance Meade scored 19 points at Tuscaloosa, Ala., to give the Crimson Tide (13-13, 6-8 in the Southeastern Conference) their third consecutive victory on its home court over a ranked opponent.

Alabama also beat No. 11 Auburn Tuesday and No. 24 Vanderbilt at home two weeks ago. The Crimson Tide was down to eight players--five freshmen and two walk-ons--against Vanderbilt because of injuries but leading scorer Schea Cotton and three forwards have since returned. Cotton had 18 points against Tennessee (22-5, 10-4).

Tony Harris and Isiah Victor, who average 15 and 10 points a game, had a combined eight for Tennessee, which was going to a school-record 23rd victory but fell into a tie for the SEC East lead with No. 9 Florida instead. Harris was one-of-nine shooting and Victor was one for five.

No. 8 Temple 72, Massachusetts 54--Quincy Wadley scored 21 points at Philadelphia to help the Owls (22-4, 13-1 in the Atlantic 10) increase their win streak to 13.

Temple led 27-24 at halftime, then scored 26 of the first 33 points of the second half to pull away from Massachusetts (15-12, 9-5), with Wadley making three shots from three-point range and Lynn Greer connecting on two in that time.

No. 17 Iowa State 72, No. 10 Oklahoma State 61--Marcus Fizer scored 29 points and Michael Nurse had five three-point baskets at Ames, Iowa as the Cyclones (24-4, 12-2) took over sole possession of the Big 12 lead.

Iowa State, picked to finish seventh in the conference, needs one victory in its last two games--at Texas Tech and Baylor--to clinch at least a share of its first conference championship since winning the Big Six in 1945. Oklahoma State (22-4, 11-3) fell into a tie for second with No. 14 Texas.

Oklahoma State was leading the conference in scoring defense at 61 points a game but Iowa State topped that figure with 8:47 to play. Fizer--the Big 12’s leading scorer at 21.7 points a game--made 13 of 19 shots and has scored 94 points in his last three games. Meanwhile, Desmond Mason--Oklahoma State’s leading scorer at 18.6 points a game--made only two of 11 shots and had eight points.

No. 12 Tulsa 85, Texas El Paso 55--The Golden Hurricane (26-3, 11-2) clinched at least a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship with the victory at Tulsa, Okla.

Tony Heard had 17 points for Tulsa, which had four double-figure scorers.

Texas El Paso (13-13, 4-9) got 30 points from Brandon Wolfram, who made 11 of 16 shots--including all three of his three-point attempts.

No. 14 Texas 85, Texas A&M; 58--Chris Mihm made all seven of his shots from the field and had 21 points, while Chris Owens scored a season-high 20 points to lift the Longhorns (20-7, 11-3 in the Big 12) past the Aggies (7-18, 3-11) at Austin, Texas.

Mihm also had 10 rebounds to record his 17th double-double of the season.

Texas defeated Texas A&M; for the 23rd time in 25 games, and reached 20 victories for the first time since 1995-96.

No. 15 Louisiana State 71, Mississippi State 66--Lamont Roland scored 18 points, including three free throws in the final 20 seconds to secure the victory at Baton Rouge, La., for the Tigers (23-4, 10-4 Southeastern Conference).

Louisiana State has won seven in a row since losing to Mississippi State (13-14, 4-10) at Starkville, Miss.

No. 18 Kentucky 60, Arkansas 55--The Wildcats (20-8, 10-4 in the SEC) managed to overcome 35.2% shooting--a season low--at Lexington, Ky.

Freshman Keith Bogans scored 22 points and Jamaal Magloire had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Kentucky, which won at least 20 games for the last 10 seasons.

Arkansas (14-13, 6-8) was outrebounded 45-28, with Kentucky holding a 21-6 advantage on the offensive end. The Razorbacks’ Joe Johnson, the SEC’s top freshman scorer at 16 points a game, was held to 10 points.

No. 19 Maryland 81, North Carolina 73

Juan Dixon scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half at College Park, Md., and the Terrapins (21-7, 10-4) clinched at least a share of the second place in the ACC standings and stretched their conference win streak to a school-record eight games.

Maryland, after losing its first three ACC games, has beaten every conference team at least once. The Terrapins shot 37% from the field and made only five of 12 free throws in the first half but took advantage of 12 turnovers by North Carolina (17-11, 8-6) to take a 37-27 lead at the half.

With Maryland’s leading Lonny Baxter on the bench with three fouls early in the second half, reserve forward Mike Mardesich made five of six shots and had 10 points.

No. 20 Oklahoma 83, Missouri 56--Eduardo Najera had 25 points and 10 rebounds in his final home game at Norman, Okla, and the Sooners (22-5, 10-4 in the Big 12) held the Tigers (16-10, 9-4) to 15 points in the first half.

J.R. Raymond, a sophomore, made six three-point baskets and had 20 points.

Freshman Kareem Rush scored 13 in his first start for Missouri, which had won its previous five road games.

No. 22 Connecticut 72, West Virginia 71--Khalid El-Amin drove the length of the court and banked in a shot at the buzzer to give the Huskies (19-8, 8-6 in the Big East) the victory at Storrs, Conn.

West Virginia (13-12, 5-9) had taken a 71-70 lead on Calvin Bowman’s two free throws with 4.8 seconds left. El-Amin, who had 23 points, then took the inbound pass and raced down the court for the game-winner in the same fashion that Tyus Edney did for UCLA in the 1995 NCAA tournament victory over Missouri that resuscitated the Bruins’ drive to the national championship.

Bowman had a career-high 29 points to lead the Mountaineers.

No. 23 Kansas 80, Baylor 70--Kenny Gregory had scored baskets in consecutive possessions in a decisive stretch in the final minutes for the Jayhawks (21-7, 10-4 in the Big 12), including a thunderous dunk that brought the crowd at Lawrence, Kan. to its feet.

Tevis Stukes had five three-point baskets to raise his season total to a school-record 86 for Baylor (12-13, 3-11), while Terry Black had seven steals--the most ever against Kansas.

Mississippi 75, No. 24 Vanderbilt 67--Marcus Hicks scored 19 points and the Bulldogs (16-11, 4-10) overcame a SEC season-high and a career best 33 points by Dan Langhi at Oxford, Miss.

Hicks--Mississippi State’s leading scorer, was benched for the first 3 1/2 minutes of the game because of lethargic performances during a four-game losing streak--which included a 44-point loss at home to Louisiana State Wednesday. He made seven of 13 shots.

Langhi, the SEC’s leading scorer at 21.8 points a game, had 20 of the 36 points scored by Vanderbilt (17-8, 7-7). The Commodores have lost four of their last five games.

Colorado State 60, No. 25 Utah 49--Shawn Harris’ crowd-arousing one-handed dunk on a rebound started a 17-4 run at Fort Collins, Colo., in which Ceedric Goodwyn scored 13 of his 21 points for the Rams (17-10, 7-5 in the Mountain West).

Goodwyn made three consecutive three-point shots, a 17-foot jumper and a dunk off a backdoor cut to help give Colorado State a 43-28 lead with 6:45 remaining.

Utah (20-6, 9-3) was coming off a 44-point victory over Nevada Las Vegas Monday, but scored only 15 points in the first half and finished with season-low 33% shooting.

Colorado State, the nation’s best three-point shooting team at 43.6%, made eight of 15 shots from behind the arc in defeating Utah for the first time in six years. The Utes made only three of 21 three-point shots.

OTHER GAMES

Courtney Alexander scored 22 points and Melvin Ely had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead Fresno State (19-9, 9-3 in the WAC) to a 69-57 victory over Rice (5-20, 1-12) at Houston. . . . Shawn Daniels had 17 points and eight rebounds to lead Utah State (23-5 14-0 in the Big West) to a 76-68 victory over North Texas (7-18, 5-9) at Denton, Texas. Utah State has the nation’s longest win streak at 14 games. . . . Miami (18-9, 11-3 in the Big East) limited Troy Murphy, a 24.5-point scorer, to 14 points in a 55-52 victory over Notre Dame (16-12, 7-7) at Miami. Murphy missed a three-point shot with seven seconds left that would have tied the game, and Matt Carroll, who got the loose ball, rimmed his three-point attempt as time expired. Miami played without suspended leading scorer Johnny Wemsley.