St. John's Defeats Providence, 64-62

Larry Wright (no. 5) led SJU scorers with 18 points in home win over Providence. Dan Miller/DMD Images

By Dan Miller
On Saturday February 9, St. John’s (9-12,3-7 Big East) hosted Big East rival Providence (13-9, 4-6 Big East) hoping to extend  their two-game winning streak to three games, a feat that they have not accomplished since the 2005-2006 season, and come closer to earning a Big East Tournament nod.

The Johnnies faced the Friars without leading scorer Anthony Mason Jr., who sat out the game with a high ankle injury. The Friars and the Red Storm have met 94 previous times, with St. John’s leading the series 54-40. Providence had defeated St. John’s in the last 10 out of 11 contests, going into the game on Saturday at Carnesecca Arena.

Red Storm guard Larry Wright was the leading scorer with 16 points and helped St. John’s to down Providence 64-62 in what turned out to be a squeaker. Eugene Lawrence chipped in points to help seal the victory. Lawrence took a crucial rebound with time running out to hit Larry Wright with a pass down court. Wright missed the shot but went to the foul line with St. John’s leading by only one point, 63-62. Wright missed the first and made the second shot, giving St. John’s a very slim two-point lead. Both players were named by Big East MBWA for their contribution to St. John’s last two victories.

After leading for the entire first half, St John’s lost some momentum as Providence chipped away at the lead in the second half until they again took the lead on a three-pointer by Jeff Xavier at the 15:04 mark on the clock. The teams were to tie five times in that second stanza.
Providence had their largest lead in the game on a free throw by Geoff McDermott to make the score 50-57 late in the game, making the SRO audience at Carnesecca Arena think that they might be about to witness another Red Storm collapse. But as fate had it, the Red Storm outscored Providence 14-5 the rest of the way, assisted by two missed free throws by Weyinimi Eteiuku for Providence with less than one second left on the game clock to give the game to St. John’s.

Four members of the Red Storm scored in double figures. In addition to Larry Wright’s 16 points, Sean Evans hit 12 points and pulled down nine rebounds, put in 10 points and pulled four boards, and Justin Burrell scored 10 points and had four rebounds.  Malik Boothe, a Rosedale resident, contributed again with a team-high six assists.
For the Providence Friars, Jeff Xavier led all scorers with 19 points and pulled down four rebounds. He was assisted by teammates Hank Randall, 16 points and three rebounds, Geoff McDermitt with eight points, nine rebounds and a game-high eight assists and Dwain Williams, with eight points and a rebound.

St John’s was scheduled to face Cincinnati in an away game on Wednesday February 13 at Fifth Third Arena in Ohio. The last time the two teams faced each other, on January 5 in Queens, St. John’s defeated Cincinnati 70-58.

Results of all St. John’s games can be obtained by visiting the Red Storm Web site at www.redstormsports.com.