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Marquette crushes cold-shooting St. John's

Mar 12, 2009 - 5:13 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Wesley Matthews scored 20 points Wednesday as No. 21 Marquette drubbed cold-shooting St. John's, 74-45, in the second round of the Big East Conference tournament.

Matthews recorded 11 points in the first half, outscoring the Red Storm by himself. St. John's was held to 10 points in the opening 20 minutes, the lowest-scoring half in Big East tournament history.

The Golden Eagles snapped a four-game slide and won their first game since losing senior Dominic James to a season-ending injury. Marquette (24-8) will face Villanova in the quarterfinals Thursday.

James broke a bone in his left foot in the first half of a 93-82 loss to Connecticut on February 25. Without James, the school's third all-time leading scorer, Marquette limped into the Big East tournament, also falling to Louisville, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

"We were never down on ourselves as a team with four straight losses because in three of them we were up," Matthews told the New York Times.

The Golden Eagles, however, had their way with St John's, building a 38-10 halftime lead. The Red Storm shot a miserable 14 percent from the field in the first half, making only three of their 22 shots.

"They scored three baskets, so it was relatively close," Marquette coach Buzz Williams told The Times when asked if his team's defensive effort was perfect.

Lazar Hayward matched the Red Storm's total with 10 of his 17 points in the first half.

Paris Horne scored 15 points for St. John's, which did not make its first field goal until the 13-minute mark, falling behind 9-2. Hayward's layup capped a 14-0 run that gave Marquette a 31-8 lead with 2:09 left in the half.

The Red Storm (16-17) won their first Big East tournament game in six years with Tuesday's 64-59 victory over Georgetown, their second victory over the Hoyas in a week.

However, any excitement St. John's created Tuesday was erased by Wednesday's embarrassing performance in which the Red Storm barely avoided the Big East tournament record low of 40 points in a game.

"When they played their hand and we played ours, we were just able to take them out of what they wanted to do," Matthews told the newspaper. "We were able to outwork them on both ends of the court. And that's the story."