Hurricanes Weathered By Red Storm In OT, 67-63
Jan. 22, 2001
By JIM O’CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Even at 6-foot-6, Anthony Glover has been St. John’s big manin his two seasons with the Red Storm.
He has more than held his own against much bigger centers in the Big Eastand has even won games with free throws in the final seconds. He is third inscoring this season at 15.8 points per game and he leads the team in reboundingwith a 5.7 average.
On Monday night, the junior was held scoreless in regulation but he scoredfour points in overtime as the Red Storm beat Miami 67-63 for their fourthstraight victory and seventh in eight games.
“I knew I wasn’t scoring but I tried to do other things like get looseballs, rebound, get teammates open with screens,” said Glover, who missed fourshots in regulation. “It was one of those days when a player can’t get abucket. You have to find other ways to win and I guess I did both.”
Glover’s first points were a layup that brought the Red Storm (11-6, 5-1 BigEast) into a 58-58 tie 50 seconds into overtime. His last points came on arebound with 2:24 left that gave St. John’s the lead for good at 62-61.
“He did rebound big down the stretch, wow,” St. John’s coach Mike Jarvissaid.
Then the big rebounds kept coming.
Miami (10-8, 2-5), which was coming off wins over Providence andConnecticut, got within 65-63 on a jumper by John Salmons with 1:22 left, butSt. John’s was able to get three straight offensive rebounds, the last put inby Alpha Bangura with 24 seconds left for the final margin.
Miami got off two 3-point attempts but one was a miss by Salmons and thesecond by James Jones was blocked by Bangura.
“The last two minutes of overtime we did not have a defensive rebound,”Miami coach Perry Clark said. “That was the critical part of the game. Thebiggest stat of the game was that we got just four points and three reboundsfrom our bench and you’re just not going to win in this league with that.”
Omar Cook had 17 points and nine assists for St. John’s in a defensive gameof runs.
Miami opened the second half with a 14-2 run in which it had four3-pointers, the last two by Jones, and went up 38-33 with 16:04 left.
A rebound basket by freshman Darius Rice, who led the Hurricanes with 22points, gave Miami a 54-46 lead with 5:45 left.
But the Red Storm scored the next eight points to tie it with 4:11 left.Cook had four points and an assist in the run.
Kyle Cuffe’s layup on an inbound pass from Cook gave St. John’s a 56-54 leadwith 1:46 to play in regulation. Each team turned it over once and Miami tiedit with 9.5 seconds left on a driving hoop by Salmons – Miami’s first pointssince Rice’s rebound dunk. Cook’s last chance at a win in regulation ended whenhe fell as he drove to the basket.
“We had more stamina at the end of the game,” Cook said. “We justoutplayed them in the overtime.”
Cuffe had 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting for the Red Storm, who took overfirst place in the Big East’s East Division by one-half game over BostonCollege.
Jones had 17 points for Miami and Salmons added 13.
“We just rushed ourselves when they made that last run, it was nothing wehadn’t seen before,” Rice said. “We just panicked there for one, two minutesand that turned the game around.” v The last five Miami-St. John’s games have been decided by a total of 15points.
Jarvis sees a lot of his team in the young Hurricanes.
“Like with us, it’s a matter of time for them to find their identity,” hesaid. “They are a dangerous team. This league is loaded with teams that havebeen overlooked all year.”
