Johnnies’ rally falls short at Marquette
Kam Jones scored 23 points and No. 6 Marquette barely avoided a last-minute collapse, topping visiting St. John’s 96-94 on Saturday for its sixth consecutive victory.
St. John’s erased nearly all of a 10-point deficit in the final 21 seconds of regulation and had a chance to tie the game before O’Mar Stanley missed the second of two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining. Jones got the rebound and hit one of two free throws to complete the scoring in the regular-season finale for each school.
Marquette (25-6, 17-3) already had clinched its first Big East outright championship Tuesday by winning 72-56 at Butler. The Golden Eagles will be the top seed in the Big East Tournament, an event they’ve never won.
The Golden Eagles have won 11 of their last 12 and 16 of their last 18.
Marquette appeared to have the game in hand after Stevie Mitchell made two free throws to make it 93-83 with 29 seconds left.
But the Red Storm wouldn’t go away.
David Jones hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left, then got a backcourt steal and sank another 3 to cut the lead to 93-89 with 18 seconds remaining. After a pair of Mitchell free throws, St. John’s guard Dylan Addae-Wusu banked in a 3-pointer while getting fouled and hit the ensuing free throw to make 95-93 with 12 seconds left.
Marquette’s David Joplin, who was shooting 84.6% from the line, missed a pair of free throws to keep the lead at two. David Jones missed a potential tying shot, but Stanley got the rebound and was fouled.
Addae-Wusu scored a career-high 25 for St. John’s, including a 3-pointer from about 60 feet away that beat the first-half buzzer. Posh Alexander had 18 and David Jones added 17.
Josh Soriano of St. John’s had 14 points and 11 rebounds in his 23rd double-double of the season, tying Purdue’s Zach Edey for the Division I lead.
SETON HALL 82, NO. 20 PROVIDENCE 58
Dre Davis scored 24 points to help Seton Hall win at Providence.
Femi Odukale had 19 points while KC Ndefo scored 15 for the Pirates (17-14, 10-10 Big East), who had dropped three in a row. Al-Amir Dawes finished with 11 points.
Seton Hall shot 63% from the field and won the rebounding battle against a Providence team (21-10, 13-7) that entered the week with its sights set on the No. 2 seed in next week’s Big East Tournament.
The Pirates made 10 3-pointers and led by as many as 32 points.
Point guard Kadary Richmond (back injury) and forward Tray Jackson (right ankle sprain) were sidelined by injuries.
NO. 14 UCONN 71, VILLANOVA 59
Jordan Hawkins scored 24 points and Alex Karaban had 16 to lead streaking No. 14 Connecticut to a 71-59 win over Villanova on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Huskies (24-7, 13-7 Big East) head into the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden winners of five straight and eight of nine. The Huskies stretched the lead to 15 points in the second half and remained alive for a top-three seed in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
The Wildcats (16-15, 10-10) are going to need to win the whole thing if they are going to make the NCAA Tournament under first-year coach Kyle Neptune.
NO. 19 XAVIER 78, BUTLER 66
Colby Jones scored 20 points, Adam Kunkel had 18 and Xavier (23-8, 15-5 Big East) avenged an earlier loss to visiting Butler (14-17, 6-14). Xavier played its ninth straight game without leading rebounder and second-leading scorer Zach Freemantle, who is out with an injured foot.