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University of Louisville
St. John's
Louisville Falls On the Road To St. John's
January 17, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) - Eugene Lawrence matched his career high with 18 points and St. John's shook off a horrid first half to beat No. 17 Louisville 68-56 Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Lawrence scored the Red Storm's first 12 points of the game and he had 14 at halftime as the Cardinals took a 32-28 lead despite St. John's shooting just 25 percent (5-for-20).
The Red Storm (9-6, 2-2 Big East) didn't need much from Lawrence in the second half as the other starters began to hit shots. St. John's made eight of its first 13 shots in the second half, outscoring Louisville (13-4, 1-3) 19-7 to take a 47-39 lead with 11:07 to play.
Louisville, which lost for the third time in five games, couldn't get any offense going in the second half, especially without leading scorer Taquan Dean, who missed his second of three games with an ankle injury.
St. John's extended the lead to as much as 64-48 with 3:33 to go on a layup by Lawrence.
Lamont Hamilton had 15 points for St. John's, including a 3-pointer and a three-point play in the 10-3 run that made it 47-39.
Anthony Mason Jr. had 14 points and 11 rebounds for St. John's, while guard Daryll Hill, playing his second game after missing four with a knee injury, had nine points and 10 rebounds.
St. John's, which leads the Big East in points allowed at 56.7 per game, outrebounded Louisville 41-26 and held the Cardinals 17 points below their average.
Juan Palacios, Brandon Jenkins and Andre McGee each had 13 points for Louisville, which went 14-for-24 from the free throw line, 10-for-20 in the second half, including missing its first six attempts.
Mason had 12 of his 14 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer and a putback. The Red Storm made four of their first six shots to shake off the terrible first half of shooting when Lawrence went 3-for-5 and the rest of the team was 2-for-15.
The starters scored all but two of the Red Storm's points for the game and St. John's finished 6-for-13 from 3-point range after entering the game shooting 25.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Dean, who averages 15.1 points per game, missed the UC Davis game with the ankle injury. He played Sunday in the loss to Pittsburgh but had two points in 12 minutes as he was visibly hampered by the injury.
