Lavin has already changed the culture of Red Storm basketball in just his first season on the job. With big wins against Notre Dame, Duke, Georgetown, St. John's has put themselves in position to earn an invite to the tournament. Something no one could have possibly imagined just a few months ago.
The win marks the first time St. John's has beaten three ranked opponents in the same season since 2001-02. The Johnnies had previously dropped their last seven games against Duke.
The Red Storm led by 21 at the half and a resilient Blue Devils squad cut it to 11 late, but St. John's was too much too handle on this day. The defense was the story as Duke had to work hard for almost every possession shooting just 41 percent from the field.
St. John's also had big contributions on offense from Dwight Hardy (26 points on 9 of 13 shooting), Justin Brownlee (20 points and 8 rebounds), and Paris Horne. Horne provided bench support with 15 points and 7 assists.
A packed Garden crowd of 19,353 was there to see an all-around stellar Red Storm performance, one that had Coach Lavin pretty excited.
"I thought our team from the outset executed with precision on offense and brought great intensity to the defensive end of the floor," he said. "And we were able to maintain a high level of basketball for 40 minutes and that was the difference."
The loss marks Duke's largest defeat (15 points) against an unranked opponent in the past 15 years.
Eleven out of the top 25 ranked teams were knocked off yesterday, which should make for a very interesting final month of basketball.
St. John's will host Rutgers (12-9) Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena.
The link below is for the highlights of the game:
http://espn.go.com/new-york/ncb/recap?gameId=310302599
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