St. John's falls to South Florida
South Florida guard Anthony Collins steals the ball from St. John's guard Moe Harkless during the first half. (Jan. 18, 2012) Credit: AP
Victor Rudd scored all of his 24 points in the second half for South Florida Wednesday night as the Bulls beat St. John's, 64-49.
Jawanza Poland added 16 points off the bench for South Florida (11-8, 4-2 Big East), which used a 13-2 run that began just before halftime to open a 15-point lead and cruise to their fourth win in five games.
Moe Harkless scored 12 and God'sgift Achiuwa had 11 points for St. John's (8-10, 2-5), which trailed by as 21 in the second half.
The loss was the third straight and fifth in six games for St. John's, which starts four freshmen and has played much of this season without coach Steve Lavin on the bench. Mike Dunlap is acting head coach while Lavin continues to recover from prostate cancer surgery performed on Oct. 6.
"We're on a journey to teach these guys how to play on the road," Dunlap said. "Our two pups, both Moe Harkless and D'Angelo [Harrison], are wonderful to coach, but they're learning and teething and finding out what the road in the Big East is all about. They've got to learn that this is a hard, hard conference."
Wednesday night's win stopped a six-game skid in a series St. John's leads 6-2. USF hadn't beaten the Red Storm since entering the Big East in 2005, and the Bulls' only previous win came on March 16, 1995, in the NIT.
"We just didn't come out and get the job done today, for whatever reason," Red Storm reserve Malik Stith said. "We didn't even, in my opinion, play as hard as we can. I just feel like we've got to a find a way to turn it around."
-- AP
