Hardy, Brownlee lead St. John's rout of Duke

At the end of the greatest 20 minutes of basketball in the Steve Lavin Era at St. John's, the Red Storm held a 21-point halftime lead over defending national champion Duke Sunday afternoon in front of a sellout Madison Square Garden crowd of 19,353. But St. John's senior-laden team had seen this movie before.

Maybe not on such a grand scale, blowing out the nation's No. 3 team, but they had a history from last season of blowing huge second-half leads. A collapse here would be epic, big enough maybe to sink their hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.

At halftime, they confronted the elephant in the locker room. "Most definitely," forward Justin Burrell said. "We really focused on coming out in the second half in the first five minutes of basketball . . . and, of course, to sustain in the second half."

On the first possession of the second half, D.J. Kennedy pounded a wide-open dunk, and when Dwight Hardy hit a midrange jumper moments later, the public-relations department should have taken a picture: St. John's 50, Duke 25.

That was the Red Storm's biggest lead, and even when the Blue Devils (19-2) surged several times in the second half, St. John's (12-8) kept its foot planted firmly on Duke's throat on the way to an improbable 93-78 victory.

Talk about your signature wins. Lavin and his coaching staff can hang their hats on this one, coming at the end of a stretch of eight straight games against top-25 opponents that included five losses in their previous six games. After a 25-point loss at Georgetown on Wednesday, a crisis was in the offing. It never happened because Lavin took charge.

"The real change came with our coaching staff," Burrell said. "They got after us the past two days and talked about the effort it takes to win games."

In general, the Storm decided to take it to Duke physically. "Coach put us through some real hard practices, and he told us to come out swinging," Sean Evans said.

Evans has gone from starting to the fringe of the rotation, but he came off the bench to score eight of his 10 points as St. John's took control early. Hardy made a couple of three-pointers during a 14-6 run that gave the Red Storm an 18-10 lead, and that seemed to open up the inside just enough.

"Me hitting two threes in a row kind of opened up the driving lanes for the wing players and also for myself," Hardy said. "Getting into the post and working inside-out helped us a lot."

Did it ever. St. John's outscored Duke 50-30 in the paint and had a 28-12 advantage in points off turnovers. Forward Justin Brownlee was brilliant with 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists; Hardy netted 26 points by sticking with his midrange jumper and driving game; Paris Horne had 15 points and six assists, and Kennedy added 10 points.

"They got into the lane when we were in zone in the first half; they got in the lane when we pressed them; they got into the lane when we didn't press them; they got into the lane when we played man," disgusted Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It was not an X-and-O thing today. I felt we were not ready to compete."

It was the worst defeat for Duke since a 74-47 loss at Clemson on Feb. 4, 2009. The Blue Devils hit only one of their first 21 three-pointers, finishing 5-for-26 from beyond the arc. Nolan Smith had 32 points and Kyle Singler 20, but the Blue Devils shot 29.6 percent in the first half and couldn't fight their way back.

"I focused on being prepared for this opportunity because of our travel to Alaska, travel to St. Mary's, the No. 2 strength of schedule in the country, our eighth consecutive top-25 opponent," Lavin said. "Who's better prepared than us to play this game at the Garden, at home? This was our time."

Against all odds, the best 20 minutes of the Lavin Era became the best 40 minutes, and maybe it was the turning point that will send the Red Storm in the direction of an NCAA bid at last.

Finishing on high point

St. John's went 3-5 in an eight-game stretch against opponents ranked in the top 25:

Date Opponent AP rank Result

Jan. 3 Georgetown 13 W, 61-58

Jan. 8 At ND 14 L, 76-61

Jan. 12 Syracuse 4 L, 76-59

Jan. 16 ND 9 W, 72-54

Jan. 19 At Louisville 19 L, 88-63

Jan. 22 Cincinnati 25 L, 53-51

Jan. 26 At Georgetown 21 L, 77-52

Jan. 30 Duke 3 W, 93-78