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St. John's knocks off No. 3 Duke

Jan 31, 2011 - 4:26 AM New York, NY (Sports Network) - Dwight Hardy scored 26 points and Justin Brownlee supplied 20 points and nine rebounds as St. John's upended third- ranked Duke, 93-78, at Madison Square Garden.

Paris Horne contributed 15 points and six assists while D.J. Kennedy and Sean Evans chipped in with 10 points apiece for the Red Storm (12-8), who finished a stretch of eight straight games against ranked opponents with three wins.

"I focused on being prepared for this opportunity because of our travel to Alaska, travel to St. Mary's, the number two strength of schedule in the country, our eighth consecutive Top-25 opponent," St. John's head coach Steve Lavin said. "Who was better prepared than us to play this game today at the Garden? This was our time. This was our moment to have another breakthrough."

Nolan Smith poured in a game-high 32 points while Kyle Singler added 20 for the Blue Devils (19-2), who were denied the best start in school history.

No other player scored in double figures for Duke, which had won the last seven meetings between the schools.

"They had a great game plan," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "In order to beat them today, we would have had to have shown up and be ready to compete at the level we normally compete at. As a program today, we did not show up to compete. We may not have beaten them anyway because they played really well."

Smith's breakaway layup capped an 8-0 surge that got the Blue Devils to within 75-60 with 5:11 to play, the closest they had been since late in the first half.

Smith and Andre Dawkins buried triples on consecutive possessions to bring the visitors to within 85-73 with 2:07 remaining. The Devils had made only 1-of-21 from beyond the arc before making 4-of-5 in the game's waning moments.

After a Horne dunk, Smith canned another trifecta to trim the deficit to 87-76 with 1:48 to go but Duke would get no closer as Kennedy and Hardy each hit a pair of free throws to sew up the victory.

Two Malike Boothe foul shots capped a 7-0 spurt and gave the Red Storm an 18-10 advantage with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

An Evans layup and two Brownlee free throws sandwiched a Horne triple that put St. John's ahead 33-17 with 5:22 to go before the break.

A Brownlee jumper followed by a Horne layup and tip-in extended the hosts lead to 45-24 with 56 seconds left before the break and the Red Storm took that same 21-point margin into the locker room at the intermission.

Game Notes

St John's last win over Duke was March 2, 2003 at MSG...The Red Storm also ended a three-game losing streak to the Blue Devils at "The World's Most Famous Arena"...Hardy made 9-of-13 from the floor and all six of his foul shots...Brownlee chipped in with six assists...St. John's was 3-for-5 from three-point territory...Smith made 10-of-19 from the field and went 10-for-14 at the line...He added seven rebounds, four assists and three steals...Singler was 7-of-17, but just 1-of-7 from long range...Duke had only nine assists on 26 made buckets while St. John's had 21 on 32 field goals...The Red Storm finished shooting 58 percent...Duke leads the all-time series, 14-6.