St. John's upsets No. 4 Pitt
St. John's coach Steve Lavin might petition the NCAA to move its tournament to Madison Square Garden. His Red Storm had to work for this one, but they upset their fifth nationally ranked team when Dwight Hardy's layup with 1.3 seconds left beat No. 4 Pitt Saturday afternoon at MSG.
Selection Sunday is three weeks away, but St. John's (17-9, 9-5) Big East just made it impossible for the committee not to pick them. After a quiet first half, Hardy scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half, including the last five Red Storm points. After his two foul shots gave the Storm a 58-56 lead with 27.6 seconds left, Pitt's Travon Woodall buried a left-win three-pointer for a 59-58 lead by the Panthers (24-3, 12-3) with 11.3 seconds left.
Inbounding against minimal pressure, Hardy walked the ball up the floor then drove hard down the right side of the lane. Woodall forced him to the baseline, but Hardy worked his way up and under for the winning layup. Pitt's desperation three from halfcourt at the buzzer by Brad Wanamaker fell woefully short, giving St. John's the 60-59 win.
Ashton Gibbs topped Pitt with 26 points but was the only Panther to reach double figures. Besides Hardy's heroics, St. John's got 15 points and eight rebounds from Justin Burrell and 11 points and seven rebounds from D.J. Kennedy.
St. John's came into the game with a 6-1 record at the Garden that included wins over four ranked opponents, including No. 3 Duke and No. 9 Connecticut in the previous two MSG contests. But coach Steve Lavin warned that No. 4 Pitt wouldn't get rattled, and he was right.
The Red Storm got out to a 21-12 lead midway through the first half as Justin Burrell came off the bench to score eight points, grab five rebounds, block two shots and pick up an assist on a backdoor feed to Sean Evans for a dunk that kept SJU in front at 26-20.
However, that Evans basket represented the only points for the Red Storm in the final 5:04 of the opening half. Pitt put together a 10-2 run to take a 27-26 halftime lead. Gibbs came off the bench after missing three games with a partially torn left medial collateral ligament, and his outside shooting made a huge difference for the Panthers as he scored 15 first-half points, including their final seven of the half.
The challenge for St. John's entering the second half was to find a way to keep the ball out of Gibbs' hands or force him to take tough shots. But somehow, Gibbs kept finding the openings in the second half, scoring eight points in a 12-5 run that gave Pitt a 40-35 lead.
St. John's responded with an 8-0 surge of its own to regain momentary control at 43-40 with 10:49 to play. But Gibbs drained another three in the middle of a 12-3 Pitt run to put the Panthers back on top with their biggest lead at 52-46. St. John's D.J. Kennedy went to the bench early in the second half with his fourth foul but returned to score four straight points to cut the deficit to 52-50 with 5:42 left.
As a native Pittsburgher, no one wanted to beat the Panthers more than Kennedy, who was 0-4 against them in his career. His steal led to two foul shots that he knocked down to cut Pitt's lead to 56-55, and then his offensive rebound gave Dwight Hardy the chance to make the tying foul shot at 48.3 seconds. Hardy missed the second, but Paris Horne's rebound gave St. John's the ball. This time, Hardy was fouled and made both for a 58-56 lead with 27.6 seconds to play.
That set the stage for yet another Magic Madison Square Garden moment for St. John's.
