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NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Considered to be too small and lacking depth at the season's outset and forced to battle through five weeks of controversy, St. John's put aside doubts and off-court problems to capture its first Big East Conference title in 14 years. Appearing to have fresher legs and taking advantage of Khalid El-Amin's absence, the 20th-ranked Red Storm turned the tables on No. 22 Connecticut and posted an 80-70 triumph in the Big East championship game at sold-out Madison Square Garden. "Winning this for New York and St. John's is very special," Red Storm coach Mike Jarvis said. "I think the fact that we beat Connecticut in the championship game makes it even more special, because of how good their program is." In the first Big East title game rematch in the league's 21-year history, St. John's (24-7) avenged last season's 82-63 loss to the Huskies to capture its first crown since Walter Berry and Mark Jackson led the then-Redmen to the 1986 title. Lou Carnesecca, the legendary coach of that 1986 championship squad who watched Berry block the driving attempt of Syracuse's Pearl Washington to preserve the 70-69 victory, watched this game from the stands. "Trophies will break, but memories and family relationships that we have will never go away," Jarvis added. "I couldn't be prouder of these guys. Not because they won, but because they came together. They represented the city like no one has ever represented New York." St. John's prevented Connecticut (24-9) from becoming the first league member to win three straight championships and also ended the Huskies' tournament-record nine-game winning streak. They were attempting to become the first team to win the title playing four games in four days. "Certainly on a Saturday night here in New York City, it's going to be a nice special thing for them," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "They certainly deserved to win. They outplayed us." The Red Storm won all three meetings this season between the schools. "I never would have bet that we would beat them three times," Jarvis said. "But this is a special group and when we got that one in Connecticut, it sent a message that we could play with anyone. I think that game helped us tremendously in terms of our confidence and believing in ourselves." Connecticut suffered just its second setback in 20 postseason games. The defending national champion's only other postseason loss the last three years was to North Carolina in the East Region final of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. El-Amin, the 1998-99 Big East Player of the Year, was hampered throughout by foul trouble and scored just 13 points. But he led a spirited second-half comeback that fell six points short. "The loss of Khalid at particular points didn't help the offense early, it got us in a little bit of a hole," said Calhoun. Troubled St. John's point guard Erick Barkley, who said he was taking a leave of absence from the team following Friday's semifinal victory over Miami, made four foul shots in the final 38 seconds as the Red Storm held on. "I think anyone would be tired playing four games in a row," Barkley said. "But we knew they would be tired the way they play. If we could just match their intensity and get some easy baskets, we knew we would win." According to the New York Post, Barkley, who has been suspended twice this season by the NCAA for violations of the governing body's rules, had an altercation with backcourt mate Bootsy Thornton in the locker room at halftime of the Miami game. "This team is a family. And we had a family dispute last night," Jarvis said. "One of our family members gave a new meaning to a leave of absence. In New York, if you look in the dictionary, a leave of absence means going home to your own bed and coming back to help your team win the Big East." But the alleged incident did not seem to play on the mind of either player. "There was no way I wasn't going to play," said Barkley. "I just wanted to apologize to my team and start off where we left off. And that's winning and being in the championship. I'm going to put this behind me and continue playing basketball for St. John's." Thornton scored 22 points and had two huge baskets down the stretch. A goaltending call on Ajou Deng gave Thornton two points and St. John's a 68-58 lead with 3:43 to play after Connecticut had cut a 15-point deficit to 64-58. "St. John's got a title, I finally got a title," said Thornton. "After being run over by Connecticut last year, it feels great." The Huskies were within six points twice in the final 40 seconds, but each time Barkley, who finished with 19 points and three assists, went 2-of-2 from the line to preserve the victory. Anthony Glover scored 15 points and Lavor Postell had 14 and eight rebounds for St. John's, which took advantage of 17 Connecticut turnovers while committing just 11 miscues and shooting 59 percent (29-of-49) from the field. "With all the controversy we've been through, we deserved this," Postell said. "The team deserved it, New York deserves it. I'm glad we won and hopefully we can carry this over to the (NCAA) Tournament." Appearing in their fifth Big East title game -- they also won the championship in 1983 -- the Red Storm took control with an early 11-2 run, capped by Chudney Grady's fast-break layup that made it 27-19 with 7 1/2 minutes to play before halftime. After the Huskies scored five straight points on a jumper in the lane by Jake Voskuhl and a 3-pointer by Albert Mouring, who scored 22 points, Thornton's steal and layup ignited a 9-0 run that gave the Red Storm a 33-24 lead en route to a 37-28 halftime advantage. Connecticut played well in the opening moments after the break and were within 46-41 following a jumper by Tony Robertson. But Reggie Jessie drove for a layup and Postell's dunk capped a 9-2 run that pushed the lead to 55-43 with 11:40 remaining. El-Amin dished out seven assists and Voskuhl collected 10 points for Connecticut, which held a 29-23 rebounding advantage and shot 47 percent (25-of-53), including 8-of-17 from 3-point range. "It was a valiant effort, but we let St. John's shoot 58 percent," said El-Amin. "They just didn't miss any shots in the second half. And we didn't play very good defense. When you let a team shoot 58 percent, it's pretty tough to win." The Huskies were playing in their sixth Big East title tilt, all since 1990. They won the crown in 1990 and 1996 and their four championships trail only Georgetown's six for the most in the conference. "Certainly they deserved to win the championship and did a terrific job," said Calhoun. "Bootsy was terrific and Postell was terrific. Bottom line, I thought they were really really good." .
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