St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
13-6, 1-5
DePaul
16-5, 4-3
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| DePaul | 28 | 31 | 59 |
| St. John's | 36 | 22 | 58 |
Women's Basketball Nearly Upsets No. 25 DePaul
1/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2009
Box Score | Quotes | Notes | Photo Gallery 
DePaul coach Doug Bruno was happy to walk away from St. John's with a victory, especially with his leading scorer feeling ill and another starter out with an injury.
Deirdre Naughton, who hadn't practiced since Saturday because of flu-like symptoms, scored 15 points.
"She's a trooper," said Bruno. "She played through it and she wouldn't not play. She came out tonight and did a really great job of doing the little things."
DePaul got contributions from elsewhere. Keisha Hampton added 13 points and 11 rebounds, Sam Quigley had 11 points, and Felicia Chester scored 10.
DePaul entered the Top 25 for the first time this season on Monday coming off a 60-58 victory over then-No. 21 Rutgers.
Sky Lindsay and Da'Shena Stevens each scored 14 points to lead St. John's (13-6, 1-5).
"We were in the position to win the game," St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "You hope that all these close losses will help us in the end."
Trailing 52-49 with 5 minutes left in the game, DePaul went on a 10-2 run over the next 4:30 minutes to take a 59-54 lead on China Threatt's jumper.
Monique McLean cut the deficit to 59-57 with a 3-pointer with 27.9 seconds left. St. John's fouled Naughton who missed the front end of a one-and-one with 11 seconds left. The Blue Demons got the offensive rebound, but Quigley missed her free throw giving St. John's one last chance.
Barnes Arico frantically tried to call timeout before finally getting it with 1.5 seconds left.
"I was trying to get a time out as soon as we crossed halfcourt but the officials didn't acknowledge it until Joy McCorvey went up and told them."
Aricia Mitchell caught the ball and dribbled before being intentionally fouled by Felicia Chester. The clock didn't start right away and only one-tenth of a second ran off it. The officials huddled and took an additional two-tenths off the clock.
The game wasn't on television so there was no electronic replay available for the officials.
"The inbounds was 1.5 seconds and she caught and dribbled before the intentional foul occurred. We decided that more than one-tenth of a second went off the clock so we made it 1.2 seconds," official Bob Trammell told The Associated Press.
Mitchell missed the first free throw before hitting the second to cut the deficit to 59-58. Stevens' potential game-winning shot at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
"That's basketball," Bruno said. "The game always runs quicker in your mind than it does on the game clock. A lot happened between 1.5 and 1.4. They still had a chance to win in the end."
Naughton missed the morning shootaround. Bruno kept trying to give his top scorer breaks to catch her breath.
With Williams out and Naughton limited, DePaul struggled early on. The Blue Demons led 13-9 on Erin Cattell's layup before St. John's went on a 19-6 run over the next 9 minutes to take a 28-19 lead on McCorvey's layup. Stevens and Kelly McManmon each had six points during the spurt. The Red Storm led 36-28 at the half.
The Red Storm will continue BIG EAST play on Sunday when it travels to face Seton Hall at noon. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
