Mad Hatten

St. John's senior sinks FT with no time left to beat Duke

St. John's guard Marcus Hatten ranks fourth in the Big East in scoring at 21.5 ppg. AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- Marcus Hatten was alone on the court with 19,610 people.

The St. John's senior was fouled with no time left on the clock and he stepped to the free throw line with a chance to give struggling St. John's an upset of No. 6 Duke.

With the sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden silent, Hatten made the free throw to cap a 12-0 run and give the Red Storm a 72-71 victory that snapped a four-game losing streak.

Hatten had 29 points, including 16 of the last 22 for the Red Storm (13-12), who held the Blue Devils scoreless over the final four minutes.

"Hatten was really good," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He kept making plays and put himself in a position to get fouled."

When Hatten made the free throw, he jumped into his teammates' arms and started a celebration, something the Red Storm hadn't been able to do in a while.

"No matter how much they got up we never gave up," said Hatten, who didn't even bother with the second free throw.

"This has been an up-and-down season with a lot on the downside, but we never quit on each other and this win means a lot to us going to the end of the season and the Big East tournament. At a time when it seemed like everybody was counting us out and not thinking we could stay within 15 points of this team, we stuck together."

Duke (20-5) had the ball with the score tied and 30 seconds to play after Hatten missed a jumper. The Blue Devils did not call a timeout, running their offense to try for a possible game-winning attempt.

But Hatten stole the ball from Daniel Ewing near midcourt and went to the basket, getting fouled by Ewing as the buzzer sounded.

"They had run the same play the last 10 minutes of the game and I had done a terrible job against it," Hatten said. "This time I just anticipated, to not let him get to the screen, and I was able to move my feet and stay in front of him without the referee calling a foul. The ball was just there, and I stuck my hand in there and came out with a pot of gold."

Ewing said he and Chris Duhon were just exchanging the ball at the top of the key.

"I thought I got fouled, but the referee didn't see it," Ewing said. "But I had to make a play, fouled him and he made the free throw. Once I fouled him it was all up to him."

The Red Storm had lost seven of nine overall and were 1-5 in their last six home games. They trailed 71-60 with 4:05 left when Duke's Dahntay Jones, who had 23 points, made one free throw.

Hatten and fellow senior Anthony Glover took over, scoring all but one of the points in the game-closing run. Each had his only 3-pointer of the game in the burst. Glover's made it 71-70 with 1:51 left and was just his fourth of the season, 12th of his career.

Kyle Cuffe made one free throw with 1:30 left to tie it at 70. Duhon missed on a drive with just under a minute left, and Glover grabbed the rebound. Hatten missed a jumper with 40 seconds left, but Glover got the rebound -- only to have Hatten miss the jumper that set the stage for the wild ending.

Glover and Cuffe each had 12 points for St. John's, which lost 97-55 to Duke last season.

Cuffe had 12 rebounds and Grady Reynolds added 10 as the Red Storm finished with a 41-34 advantage on the boards.

"I'm just glad the kids went out and played," St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said. "They played for the entire game. If you do that, sometimes you get the bounces and even maybe a call here or there. It's a special day and this was a much deserved, special victory."

Duhon had 15 points for Duke, which had won four straight and six of seven.

"We didn't take care of the ball down the stretch and let them hang around, and it came back to bite us," Ewing said.

The loss snapped Duke's 26-game winning streak over nonconference opponents in the regular season, which dated to a loss to Stanford on Dec. 21, 2000.

"We didn't play nearly as well as we've been playing and certainly a lot of that had to do with the intensity in which they attacked the boards," Krzyzewski said. "They came to play today."

 

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