Published: January 23, 2007
NEW YORK
In less than three days St. John's has gone from a team being
asked about the possibility of not making the Big East tournament
again to one finding out what life is like closer to the middle of
one of the best conferences in the country.
Just as they did Sunday in a win over Syracuse, the Red Storm
used a late 3-pointer to beat No. 22 Notre Dame 71-68 on Tuesday
night.
"The win against Syracuse was a big confidence booster," junior
guard Eugene Lawrence said. "We realized what we're capable doing,
what we should have been doing since the beginning of the season
and to stick with it."
This time it was freshman Larry Wright with the big shot for St.
John's (12-8, 3-4 Big East), which beat Syracuse 64-60 on Sunday at
Madison Square Garden on two late 3-pointers by Avery
Patterson.
He hit a 3-pointer with 9.9 seconds to play to break the 68-all
tie.
"It felt really good when it left my hands," Wright said of his
first-ever game-winning shot. "When it went in I was still shocked.
I couldn't believe it."
The victory gave St. John's its fifth over a ranked opponent
during head coach Norm Roberts' three-year tenure.
Notre Dame (16-4, 4-3) tied the game at 68 with 40 seconds to go
on the second of two free throws by Colin Falls. The Red Storm
called a timeout with 36 seconds left, and they ran the shot clock
down just under 10 seconds before passing the ball to Wright in the
right corner. The 6-foot-2 freshman reserve buried his third 3 of
the game in four attempts.
Notre Dame rushed the ball down court and Russell Carter's
3-point attempt from about 28 feet bounced off the rim and the
Fighting Irish dropped to 0-3 on the road in the conference.
"Once he let it go I knew it was going to go in," said Notre
Dame guard Troy Jackson, who like Wright is a freshman from
Saginaw, Mich. "He was like that in high school. He is confident in
his shot. Once he knocked it down I was ready to go on to the next
play and try to counter back. We couldn't. It happens that
way."
Lamont Hamilton scored all of his 23 points in the first half
for St. John's, but he was the one who passed the ball to Wright
out of the post.
"In the first half they were basically playing man to man and in
the second half they did a better job of sliding down on me,"
Hamilton said. "When the ball came to me on the last play I saw
Larry in the corner and when they double-teamed me I got it to
him."
Carter finished with a career-high 32 points for Notre Dame
(16-4, 4-3), which dropped to 0-3 on the road in the Big East. He
scored all the points in the Irish's 11-0 run to open the second
half that got them a 52-49 lead.
Eugene Lawrence had 13 points and seven assists for St. John's,
which shot 59.3 percent from the field in taking a 49-41 halftime
lead. The Red Storm missed their first 10 shots of the second half
before Wright, who finished with 11 points, hit a 3-pointer 6:18
in.
"I thought we played well in the first half. We played so hard,"
St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. "In the second half we just
could not get a shot to go down for us. We had a bunch of layups
and bunnies but the kids showed a lot of toughness and stuck it out
and Larry made that 3 and for us back on the right track."
Falls had 16 points for Notre Dame but he was 1-for-6 from
3-point range in the second half after going 4-for-6 in the opening
20 minutes.
As Hamilton couldn't score in the second half, Anthony Mason Jr.
scored seven of his nine points in a one-minute span, the last of
them was a jumper with 10:07 to play that gave the Red Storm a
61-59 lead.
They held the lead until Falls tied it in the final minute.
"I think it would have been a steal on the road especially how
we played in the first half," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "We
gave ourselves a chance and Wright hit a big shot for them."