Hardy helps rally St. John's past Marquette
St. John's Erik Williams drives to the basket against Marquette's Chris Otule, left, in the second half. St. John's won, 80-68. (Feb. 15, 2011) Credit: AP
Dwight Hardy scored 28 points and St. John’s rallied in the second half to beat Marquette 80-68 on Tuesday night, snapping an 11-game losing streak in the series.
The Red Storm (16-9, 8-5 Big East) are playing their best basketball at the right time, completing this three-game stretch with three wins in six days after also beating No. 10 Connecticut and Cincinnati.
St. John’s D.J. Kennedy scored 15 points, Justin Brownlee added 11 and Justin Burrell added 10 points and 12 rebounds as the Red Storm overcame a seven-point deficit early in the second half.
Jimmy Butler scored 21 points, but the NCAA tournament hopes of Marquette (15-11, 6-7) may be fading because of this 2-5 stretch even though the Golden Eagles play three of their final five at home.
After a back-and-forth first half that featured 12 lead changes and 11 ties, Butler converted a three-point play, Darius Johnson-Odom hit a 15-footer and Butler found Chris Otule for a dunk to start the second and give the Golden Eagles a 45-38 lead.
But the Red Storm rallied right back to win for the first time in this series since 1966.
Kennedy’s layup capped a 9-1 spurt that gave St. John’s a 47-46 lead. Butler answered with a layup to give Marquette its final lead before Hardy and Kennedy took over.
Hardy, the Big East’s player of the week who has averaged 27.8 points in his last four games, hit a 3 that gave St. John’s a 56-52 advantage and Kennedy scored six straight on a dunk, a layup and two free throws that gave the Red Storm a 62-52 advantage with 8:39 left.
Marquette never came closer than seven the rest of the way.
The Red Storm seemingly were left behind after three straight losses to Louisville, Cincinnati and Georgetown left them 11-8 overall. But St. John’s has rallied in a big way, winning five of the last six including against then-No. 3 Duke before this stretch.
St. John’s faces No. 4 Pittsburgh on Saturday as it continues to thrive playing the second-toughest schedule in the nation at this point of the season. First-year coach Steve Lavin again donned white tennis shoes that started as a superstition after wearing them in the 93-78 win over Duke on Jan. 30.
This victory helped St. John’s NCAA tournament case in the jumbled Big East. Entering Tuesday, the fifth through 11th teams were separated by a single game in the conference standings.
Jae Crowder scored 15 points and Johnson-Odom finished with 14, but Marquette may be headed for a lesser postseason tournament despite also faring admirably against a rugged schedule.
Nine of the Golden Eagles’ 11 losses this season have come against programs ranked in the Top 25 at the time of the game, and eight of those losses have come outside the Bradley Center.
