St. John's scores basket for Notre Dame; But still upsets No. 20 Fighting Irish

St. John's is starting to play its best basketball of the season and— despite scoring a basket for the visiting team— held off a frenetic come-back by Notre Dame to post its first victory over a ranked team this season.

Even if the Red Storm wasn't perfect for 40 minutes, they definitely played their best first half in 2012.

The Red Storm won their third straight game by shocking the 20th-ranked Fighting Irish, 61-58, in Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon.

St. John's (13-16, 6-10) had lost 10 consecutive games against ranked opponents this season when— with three minutes to go and a 56-52 lead— a missed shot by Notre Dame's Pat Connaughton was inadvertently tipped in by St. John's Sir'Dominic Pointer to close the gap to two points.

It looked like another Red Storm collapse was inevitable.

Notre Dame's Jack Cooley was credited with the score, but replays showed he never even touched the ball— it was all Pointer.

It was a bucket that the Red Storm couldn't afford to give the visiting team.  St. John's went more than five minutes without scoring a field goal and were up only 57-56 with 44 seconds left after Notre Dame scored on an inbounds pass.

Notre Dame (20-9, 12-4) stormed back from a double-digit deficit and had momentum on its side.  Only Amir Garret's drive through traffic in the lane with no time on the shot clock and only 8.9 seconds left  saved the game for the Johnnies.  Garret's runner clinched the victory and snapped the Fighting Irish's nine-game win streak.

Notre dame's Alex Dragevich missed a long three-point shot at the end of the game.

Moe Harkless— the freshman phenom— finished with 22 points  and nine rebounds.  D'Angelo Harrison had 15 points and Garret had 11.  Cooley and Scott Martin finished with 18 apiece for the Irish.

Both coaching staffs sported blue bow ties to help raise awareness of prostate cancer.  St. John's head coach Steve Lavin is still recovering from surgery for the disease.

St. John's beats UCLA to snap 4-game losing streak

D'Angelo Harrison scored 22 points and Phil Greene made a huge rebound with 6.5 seconds to play but it was Sir' Dominic Pointer's crowd-pleasing dunk that set the tone as St. John's defeated UCLA 66-63 on Saturday  at Madison Square Garden.

Pointer's dunk with 13:16 left seem to invigorate the Red Storm and got the home crowd into the game.

"Climbing the imaginary ladder" as CBS announcer Ian Eagle called Pointer's jam.

St. John's (11-16) snapped a four game losing streak and the win might be called sweet revenge for last year's loss at UCLA.  The California school was Red Storm head coach Steve Lavin's former team.




Lavin, who is still recovering from prostate cancer, watched the game from a suite high above the Garden floor.

In an interview with CBS, the smiling Lavin said he is taking the recovery "week-to-week and is still focusing on recruiting."

"I come in to watch films with the players," he said.  "I will be back next year."

The head coach discussed his long absences from the team and said,"We try to have a meal with them every week and get them to spend time with my wife.  She's more inspiring than I am in terms of their spirits."

Lavin coached UCLA for seven seasons and took them to the NCAA tournament six times.  He took over at St. John's last year and led the team to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002.

UCLA (15-12) had too many turnovers and couldn't keep up with St. John's athleticism. 

Pointer finished the game with 13 points and seven rebounds while Moe Harkless had 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Johnnies.

Linsanity seems to have rubbed off on the Red Storm.  They Sir-tainly looked like a better team today.