NEW YORK — Madison Square Garden has been a second home to St. John’s basketball teams over the last eight decades.
The latest of the Red Storm’s five wins over ranked teams was a heart-stopping, come-from-behind thriller over No. 4 Pittsburgh on Saturday that has the players thinking of joining the ranks of the ranked themselves.
“I can’t wait,” St. John’s forward Justin Burrell said of the Red Storm moving into the top 25. “It’s been a long four years without that number. We deserve to see that number.”
It’s actually been just over a decade since St. John’s was in The Associated Press poll.
Dwight Hardy’s underhanded flip with 1.2 seconds left Saturday gave the Red Storm a 60-59 victory, its fifth this season over a team that has spent time in the top 10 — and all of them have been at Madison Square Garden.
Hardy, who finished with 19 points, started his drive near midcourt and went past Gilbert Brown twice as he defended him on the right side of the court. He went to the baseline and underhanded the ball up and over the rim to give the Red Storm another highly ranked victim at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s has defeated then-No. 13 Georgetown, No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 3 Duke and No. 10 Connecticut, all big wins in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. And the Red Storm is looking for its first NCAA bid since 2002.
West Virginia 72, No. 8 Notre Dame 58
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Truck Bryant broke out of a slump by scoring 24 points and West Virginia took command early in the second half to snap the Fighting Irish’s seven-game winning streak.
Joe Mazzulla added 16 points, and Kevin Jones contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Mountaineers.
Ben Hansbrough led Notre Dame with 19 points. Carleton Scott scored 11 for the Irish, who were trying to match their best conference record through 14 games (set in the 2000-01 season).
No. 9 Georgetown 61, South Florida 55
TAMPA, Fla. — Chris Wright made six free throws in the final 29.7 seconds to finish with a season-high 26 points as Georgetown produced its ninth win in 10 games.
The Hoyas rebounded from an eight-point loss to Connecticut, pulling away during an 18-8 surge and hanging on despite getting a season-low four points on 2-of-10 shooting by Austin Freeman, the Big East Conference’s third-leading scorer.
No. 12 Arizona 87, Washington 86
TUCSON — Arizona’s Derrick Williams scored 26 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and had a game-saving block on Darnell Gant with less than a second left.
Arizona built a 12-point lead early in the second half, allowed Washington to claw back with a slew of careless turnovers, then pulled out its 15th straight home win with Williams’ help.
The super sophomore scored 10 of his points in the final six minutes, including a big 3-pointer, but saved his best plays on the defensive end in the final seconds.
Solomon Hill gave Arizona the lead on a putback with 24 seconds left. Williams followed a turnover under the basket by swatting Gant’s shot into the crowd behind the basket.
No. 15 Villanova 77, DePaul 75, OT
ROSEMONT, Ill. — Corey Fisher scored a career-high 34 points, nailing the tying 3-pointer near the end of regulation and boosting the Wildcats in overtime.
No. 17 Syracuse 84, Rutgers 80
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Kris Joseph scored six of his 21 points in overtime and the Orange held on by making seven free throws in the 63 seconds of overtime.
Rutgers has lost five of six and fell to 1-22 in games played at Syracuse. The lone victory was Feb. 6, 1975 — the season before Jim Boeheim became head coach of the Orange.
No. 18 Vanderbilt 77, Auburn 60
AUBURN, Ala. — John Jenkins scored 22 points and the Commodores used a 23-4 second- half run to ensure their sixth 20-win campaign during coach Kevin Stallings’ 12 seasons.
No. 19 North Carolina 48, Boston College 46
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina overcame its lowest-scoring game under Roy Williams to reach the 20-win mark for the seventh straight season under him and held Boston College to season-low points. Palmer product Reggie Jackson scored 13 for BC.
No. 22 Kentucky 90, South Carolina 59
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky scored the game’s first 14 points and led by as much as 36 points in pushing its home winning streak to 32 games, the second-longest in school history.
No. 24 Xavier 79, Fordham 72
CINCINNATI — The Musketeers won their fifth straight and 12th in 13 games and reached 20 wins for the sixth consecutive season and 14th in the last 15.
No. 25 Utah State 75, Saint Mary’s 65
MORAGA, Calif. — The Aggies rallied from a 10-point deficit early in the second half with a tight defense that forced the Gaels to miss 16 of their first 20 shots in the second half for their first home loss of the season.
