Villanova, Duke no match for giant-killer St. John’s
St. John’s watched a desperation heave clang off the rim, and players broke into wide smiles and raised their arms in triumph. The Red Storm ran toward their reserves for joyous, leaping chest bumps that the program waited more than three decades to bust out for such an occasion.
Winless and woeful no more, the Red Storm are abruptly toppling Final Four contenders.
St. John’s took down another of the nation’s elite, stunning No. 1 Villanova 79-75 on Wednesday night for its second win over a top-five team in a week — and first over the top-ranked team in 33 years.
Shamorie Ponds scored 26 points to spark the Red Storm (12-13, 1-11 Big East) to their first conference win of the season and easily their best week since Chris Mullin was in uniform, not the coach.
Mullin played for St. John’s when it beat No. 1 Georgetown 66-65 on Jan. 26, 1985. And Mullin was on the sideline exhorting his players in the final minutes of this shocker.
St. John’s beat then-No. 4 Duke Blue Devils 81-77 at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 2, snapping an 11-game losing streak. It was the first win for St. John’s since Dec. 20 against Saint Joseph’s.
“These are huge wins,” Mullin said. “It’s a testament to their perseverance, unselfishness with each other, their confidence.”
The Wildcats (22-2, 9-2) ended a nine-game winning streak and will surely tumble from the top spot in the rankings.
UConn women: The Huskies improved to 23-0 Wednesday night with an uncharacteristic slow-paced game against Central Florida.
Coach Geno Auriemma didn’t want people to be misled by the 55-37 final score.
“We’re supposed to win every game 100-50 and if we don’t it’s because we (stunk), not because the other team was pretty good,” Auriemma said. “UCF’s pretty good.”
UConn has never lost in the American Conference, a stretch of 81 straight games.
But it was, by far, the Huskies’ lowest scoring game of the season. UConn came into the game averaging a NCAA best 93.1 points a game.
Mississippi State women: Victoria Vivians had never beaten South Carolina during her stellar career at Mississippi State.
In front of the first sellout crowd in women’s basketball history, Vivians scored 20 of her 24 points in the first half to help No. 2 Mississippi State beat No. 7 South Carolina 67-53 on Monday night.
The Bulldogs (24-0, 10-0 SEC) had lost 11 straight to the Gamecocks, including a defeat in the national championship game last season.
The rematch of that April game brought 10,794 fans to Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, with the game sold out two weeks in advance.
Kentucky: The university and Lexington Center Corporation have reached an agreement on a new lease for the Wildcats to play basketball at Rupp Arena.
With Kentucky’s current lease with the city on the venue set to expire at the end of the 2018 season, the new agreement will keep Wildcats home games at Rupp Arena for the next 15 seasons.