St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
8-9,2-4
Pittsburgh*
6-11,2-5
Red Storm's Balanced Attack Downs Pittsburgh, 83-72
1/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2004
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The Red Storm used pressure defense and a balanced scoring attack to defeat the Pittsburgh Panthers, 83-72, this afternoon at Alumni Hall. St. John's forced a season-high 26 Panther turnovers, while posting five players in double-figures, to snap their 19 game BIG EAST home losing streak. The Red Storm's last victory came on February 20, 2001 when St. John's beat Syracuse 55-45. The win improves St. John's overall record to 8-9 and a 2-4 BIG EAST mark, while the Panthers fall to 6-11 overall and 2-5 in the conference.
Senior Reka Szavuly (Miskolc, Hungary) sparked the Red Storm, coming off the bench to score a season-high 16 points, while graduate student Kim MacMillan (Toms River, N.J.) and senior Shemika Stevens (New York, N.Y.) also added 16 in the winning effort.
After battling to an early 8-7 lead, Pittsburgh went on a 5-0 run, behind five straight points from Jessica Allen, to take the lead at 13-7 with 14:08 remaining in the first half. St. John's halted the spurt with a short three-point run of their own, but Pittsburgh quickly widened their margin to 23-12, as they followed with a 10-2 run over the next 4:30.
After stopping the Panther lead at 11, the Red Storm continued to chip away at the deficit, getting to within three at 26-23 with 5:19 left in the half. The two schools matched baskets to get to 30-27, but MacMillan stole the inbounds pass and scored to pull the Red Storm within one and a put back by Angie Clark (Copiague, N.Y.) the next time down the court gave the Red Storm their first lead since early in the half. A Pittsburgh free throw tied the game at 31, but a Danielle Chambers (Brooklyn, N.Y.) basket and two Szavuly free throws gave St. John's the lead at 35-31. A three-point play by Latoya Kincaid got the Panthers within one, but the Red Storm closed out the half with four unanswered points to take a 39-34 advantage into the break.
St. John's went to Clark early in the second half, as she scored ten points in the first six minutes, helping the Red Storm open up to a 20-point advantage. With the Red Storm leading 51-42, St. John's ran off 11 straight points to put the lead out of reach with less than 13 minutes remaining. The Panthers, however, would not quit as they got the lead down to 73-59 with 4:17 left and continued to cut into the lead pulling within ten with less than a minute left. St. John's held off the late push by Pittsburgh to take the game 83-72. MacMillan added a team-high seven rebounds and five steals to her 16-point total, while Stevens dished out a game-high six assists. Clark and Chambers rounded out the double-figure scoring, adding 14 and 12 points respectively. Latoya Kincaid led the Panthers with 25 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
The Red Storm return to action Wednesday, January 28, as they travel to Seton Hall to take on the Pirates at 7 p.m.
