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NAU comes up short against Red Storm


[Picture]

Associated Press

St. John's Lavor Postell (25) and Erick Barkley (12) celebrate St. John's win over Northern Arizona in an NCAA first-round playoff game in Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday, March 16, 2000. St. John's beat Northern Arizona 61-56.


By Chris Jackson
Arizona Daily Wildcat,
March 16, 2000
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The second-seeded St. John's Red Storm survived a major scare from unheralded Northern Arizona, squeaking by 61-56 in the first round of the West Regional at McKale Center Thursday night.

NAU's Cory Schwab hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to give the Lumberjacks (20-11) a 56-55 lead over the Red Storm (25-7).

But St. John's Lavor Postell hit a jumper and was fouled with 13.8 seconds to go, putting the Red Storm back up 58-56.

"I had a terrible game, but in the end, I had to take over," he said. "I got in the lane and was lucky to get hit."

NAU's Ross Land committed the foul.

"I tried to stop the pump-fake, but he has good hands - I should have known (he'd hit it)," Land said. "We tried to foul Postel before he got the shot off, but he hit the shot. The ref waited a little bit, but he got the shot off."

Erick Barkley then stole the ball from NAU's Ross Land with 2.6 seconds to go, ending the Lumberjacks' hopes.

A Barkley free throw and a put-back shot by Bootsy Thornton accounted for the final margin.

"I expected to have a tough game but I did not expect anything like that," St. John's head coach Mike Jarvis said. "We obviously did not put forth our best effort but we came through when it counted - in the end. You have to expect to play very tough games in the NCAA Tournament and we got one of the best ones tonight."

The Lumberjacks refused to die until the waning moments against the Red Storm, hanging on for dear life even after St. John's went up 45-36 on point guard Barkley's layin with 12:47 left in the second half.

But Barkley and his teammates weren't about to celebrate.

"We knew that lead was nothing," he said. "Against a great 3-point shooting team a lead like that can go away fast."

So the Lumberjacks did just that.

Land hit a three to chop into the lead to 47-41 with just over nine minutes left and then point guard Adam Lopez sank a trey barely two minutes later to narrow it to 47-44.

Thornton scooped a shot out from under the basket to push the lead to 49-44 but Lumberjack center Dan McClintock's subsequent jumper cut it to 49-46.

An NAU turnover resulted in a breakaway layup by Thornton but McClintock scored on the next play to trim the lead to 51-48.

Thornton glided to the basket two possessions later to make it 53-48 with under five minutes to go.

Then Land hit another three to make it 53-51 with 3:30 left.

Billy Hix tied the game 53-53 with a layin and the pro-NAU McKale crowd went nuts until Reggie Jessie silenced them with a short jumper to make it 55-53.

Then Schwab nailed his next three with less than 30 seconds left to make it 56-55 but it was not enough.

Thornton led all scorers with 20 points on 10 of 16 shooting. "We just wanted to come out there and win tonight but this was too close for our comfort," Thornton said. "We did not take advantage of a lot of the opportunities that we were given but we have to give a lot of credit to Northern Arizona."

McClintock led the Lumberjacks with 18 points while Hix added 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Despite the crushing loss, NAU head coach Mike Adras said his team would recover.

"I believed our guys deserved to win," he said. "I have great kids - they epitomize the student-athlete. I can't be more proud of my kids. We played like champions tonight. I'll tell you what, back in New York City, they know who Northern Arizona University is."

St. John's advanced to play Gonzaga in the late game Saturday afternoon at McKale. No. 3 seed Oklahoma will face No. 6 Purdue in the first game at 3:30, with game two starting half an hour later.

Wildcat sports reporter Ryan Finley contributed to this story.


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