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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
NEW YORK (AP) -- Six weeks of off-the-court problems wasn't
enough to keep St. John's from winning its first Big East
championship in 14 years.
|  | | Erick Barkley overcame the turmoil of the past six weeks to score 19 for the Red Storm. |
The third-seeded Red Storm (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP) ended Connecticut's two-year run as conference champion with an 80-70 victory Saturday night.
Despite two suspensions of leading scorer Erick Barkley for
violations of NCAA rules and an altercation between Barkley and a
teammate at halftime of the semifinal game, St. John's (24-7)
managed to win 11 of 12 games and sweep through the Big East
tournament, avenging last year's 83-69 championship game loss to
Connecticut (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 AP).
"It's a great night, a great day, week, month, year,"
second-year St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said. "I hope we'll have
this feeling again before another 14 years, but the wait was well worth it."
Barkley was suspended for two games in early February for a
violation of NCAA rules involving exchanging cars with a family
friend and was suspended a second time for one game at the end of
the month for receiving financial help from his former AAU team in
paying his tuition at Maine Central Institute.
Then on Friday night, he said he was "taking a leave of
absence" and wouldn't play in the championship game. He and Bootsy
Thornton had some kind of altercation at halftime of the win over
Miami, but the two seemed fine a day later.
Thornton, selected the tournament's outstanding player, had 22
points and Barkley, an all-tournament team selection, had 19 as the
Red Storm shot 59.2 percent (29-for-49).
"It all goes back to the fact this team is a family," Jarvis said. "We had a little family dispute last night and one of the family members redefined what a leave of absence is."
Barkley stayed at his home in Queens on Friday night rather than
with the team in a Manhattan hotel.
"There was no doubt in my mind I was playing," he said of how
he felt when he woke up Saturday. "I just wanted to get to the
shootaround and apologize to the team and get back to winning and
get the Big East championship."
Thornton, who was 4-for-6 from 3-point range, said the latest
incident was just an addition to the list.
"When we're on the court it's the only time we can focus," he
said. "We can't worry about things off the court."
Fourth-seeded Connecticut (24-9), the defending national
champion which was trying to become the first team to win three
straight Big East titles, was playing its fourth game in as many
days. The Huskies were never able to get going as the Red Storm
forced them into 17 turnovers, 12 in the first half.
St. John's, which won the Big East in 1983 and 1986, beat the
Huskies three times this season.
"From our standpoint, we weren't physically tired but mentally
we didn't do what I thought we would do," Connecticut coach Jim
Calhoun said. "We knew Bootsy would shoot the 3s and we still gave
him five, six feet of cushion.
"I don't think there's any excuses. They beat us, they were the
better team and they've proven that three times."
The Red Storm closed the first half with a 10-4 run for a 37-28
lead.
They extended it to 60-45 with 9:44 left on a jumper by
Thornton. Connecticut, which had a six-game winning streak snapped,
used an 8-0 run to get within 64-58 with 4:45 left. But Anthony
Glover, the hero of the semifinal victory with two free throws with
2.2 seconds left, made two free throws and Thornton scored when his
layup was goaltended and the Red Storm led 68-58 with 3:43 left.
The Huskies got within six points twice in the final 40 seconds,
but Barkley made two free throws each time to get the lead back to
eight.
"Finally, St. John's got a championship. I got a
championship," Barkley said. "After we got run over by UConn last
year this feels great."
Khalid El-Amin, who averaged 18.3 points in Connecticut's first
three games, finished with 13 -- nine in the final three minutes -- as he played through foul trouble throughout the game.
"Two of those were freak fouls," Calhoun said, referring to
what appeared to be accidental trip and a collision. "What really
stymied us in the final 10 minutes of the first half was Barkley
locked up (El-Amin's backup) Tony (Robertson) and Tony let himself
be locked up. In the second half he did a better job but that did
allow us to stay in real close touch."
Glover finished with 15 points and Lavor Postell had 14 for St.
John's.
Albert Mouring led the Huskies with 22 points, including 6-of-11
shooting from 3-point range.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Connecticut Clubhouse
St Johns Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Erick Barkley uses the nice wraparound pass to feed Anthony Glover.
avi: 606 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Kevin Freeman finishes the break with the jam.
avi: 456 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Lavor Postell goes way above the rim for the rebound.
avi: 515 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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