No. 13 Miami Squashes St. John's, 79-56
Feb 13, 2002
MIAMI (AP) – Elton Tyler scored 21 points and John Salmons added 16 as No.13 Miami beat St. John’s 79-56 Wednesday night.
Tyler was 10-of-13 from the field, while Salmons had a career-high 11assists and six rebounds for the Hurricanes (21-4, 8-4 Big East), who pulledwithin one-half game of Connecticut for first place in the conference’s EastDivision.
Miami led 36-14 at halftime, holding St. John’s (16-8, 6-6) to 15 percentshooting from the field.
St. John’s closed within 48-37 on a free throw by Marcus Hatten with 10:29left in the game, but Miami responded with an 11-2 run and went up 59-39 on twofree throws by Salmons.
Marcus Barnes had 13 points for Miami, while James Jones finished with 12.
Donald Emanuel led St. John’s with 10 points. Hatten, who entered the gameaveraging 22.4 points per game in the conference, was held to eight points on2-for-12 shooting.
For the game, St. John’s shot 30 percent from the field.
The blowout was uncharacteristic of the series. In 14 of the last 16 gamesbetween the schools, the score was decided by less than five points or inovertime. St. John’s beat Miami 71-60 on Jan. 8.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Barnes to close the first half gave Miami its22-point lead. The 14 points was the Red Storm’s first-half low for the seasonas they were 4-for-27 from the field and committed 11 turnovers.
Miami used a 20-2 run to build a 26-9 lead with 3:42 left in the first half.After taking a 7-6 lead, the Red Storm went 6:09 without scoring, and had justtwo points in an 11:11 span.
St. John’s came within two points of the lowest first-half point total everin a Big East game. On Jan. 14, 1992, Miami trailed 14-12 at halftime beforebeating St. John’s 45-42.
St. John’s previous first-half low came on Jan. 2 at Pittsburgh, when ittrailed 41-18 at halftime.
