St. John's edges No. 14 Cincinnati
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}D'Angelo Harrison's jumper with 28.2 seconds remaining lifted the St. John's Red Storm over the 14th-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats, 53-52, on Saturday.
Harrison ended with 15 points and seven rebounds for the Red Storm (9-5, 1-1 Big East), who snapped a two-game skid. JaKarr Sampson added 16 points, eight boards and three steals.
Cashmere Wright had 23 points, 10 rebounds and four steals to pace the Bearcats (13-2, 1-1), who have lost two of three. Titus Rubles donated 14 points.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We had a lot of miscues on rotation. We give credit to St. John's for the game but we somewhat beat ourselves," Wright said.
Trailing by 10, 48-38, with 7:01 to play, Cincinnati roared back with a 14-3 run. Wright made a pair of 3-pointers before Rubles' free throw cut the deficit to 48-47 with 2:32 remaining.
It remained a one-point contest following 3-pointers by Harrison and Rubles. After each team missed a jumper, Chris Obekpa missed the front end of a one- and-one.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wright made a layup on the ensuing Cincinnati possession to give the Bearcats a 52-51 lead with 53.2 seconds to go. However, Harrison responded with a jumper at the other end to put St. John's back in front.
With a chance to put Cincinnati back on top, Rubles missed a jumper. Sir'Dominic Pointer grabbed the defensive rebound and was fouled with 3.1 seconds left. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, which led to Wright's missed half-court shot.
"Before the game even though all I wrote down was rebound, I told them that there's intersections and crossroads in every season," St. John's coach Steve Lavin said. "Sometimes there are multiple crossroads in a season where a team needs a signature win and I said that it's you guys not me that are the authors of victories, you're the engineers and architects of victories so why not today. I told them why don't we take this opportunity today to flip things and out-rebound Cincinnati so we can win."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trailing by seven, 19-12, with 6:12 remaining in the first half, St. John's closed out the period on a 12-2 run. Sampson and Amir Garrett each made layups to give the Red Storm a 24-21 margin at the break.
Holding a 26-24 edge early in the second half, St. John's went on a 10-0 spurt to create some distance. Phil Greene IV capped the surge with a layup to make it a 36-24 contest with 14:44 to play.
Game Notes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}St. John's leads the all-time series by a 9-7 margin ... Cincinnati shot 31.7 percent from the field and went 8-of-26 from beyond the arc, while the Red Storm made 40 percent of their shots and went 1-of-9 from three-point range.