McManmon leads No. 16 St. John's past Pitt, 77-65

Mar 2, 2010 - 2:13 AM PITTSBURGH(AP) -- Kelly McManmon scored 18 points and No. 16 St. John's won for the 11th time in 13 games and clinched a double-bye in the Big East tournament with a 77-65 win over Pittsburgh on Monday night.

Da'Shena Stevens added 17 points and 15 rebounds and Shenneika Smith had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Red Storm (24-5, 12-4), who reached 24 wins in a season for the first time in 26 years.

Nadirah McKenith had 14 assists for St. John's, tying for the sixth-most in a game in school history. The Red Storm shot 7 for 13 on 3-pointers, including 6 of 9 by McManmon.

Brittaney Thomas had a career-high 27 points and Chelsea Cole added 11 points and 16 rebounds for Pitt (16-13, 5-11), which had won four of its previous five.

It was the regular-season finale for both teams. The Red Storm will enter this weekend's Big East tournament in the quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed after No. 6 Notre Dame lost to No. 1 Connecticut on Monday night.

The Panthers, who were ranked as high as No. 15 earlier in the season, lost 11 conference games for the first time since 2004-05 - also the most recent time they lost as many as 13 overall.

The Red Storm led by nine after a 14-2 run late in the first half.

The game featured 11 ties, the last at 58-58 with 7:25 left. St. John's then used a 12-3 run to take the lead for good, part of a game-closing 19-7 run