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Friday, Mar. 10 9:00pm ET
St. John's outlasts Miami in FT battle

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Anthony Glover was all alone in a packed Madison Square Garden.


	Anthony Glover was 1-for-7 from the floor and 5-for-10 from the FT line ... but he made the two foul shots that counted most.

The sophomore forward from St. John's (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP) was by himself on the court waiting to take two free throws as the officials reviewed the tape to see how much time should be on the game clock.

Johnny Hemsley of Miami (No. 23 AP) even tried to distract him by giving him skin, but the 61 percent free-throw shooter made both foul shots, giving St. John's a 58-57 victory Friday night and advancing the Red Storm to a rematch of last year's Big East tournament championship game with Connecticut.

Glover, 3-for-8 from the line in the game at that point, made the two shots with 2.2 seconds left, giving the third-seeded Red Storm (23-7) a 58-57 lead.

"I was nervous, first of all," Glover said, adding that one of the assistant coaches reminded him about some big free throws he made in a high school championship game. "I bent my knees, followed through and I hit both of them."

He never gave Hemsley a chance to make contact.

"That's bad luck," he said of being touched by an opponent before a free throw. "No way I was touching him at all. I didn't touch him."

The game, however, was far from over.

Second-seeded Miami (21-10), which took a 57-56 lead on two free throws by Mario Bland with 7.6 seconds left, inbounded the ball with no timeouts.

St. John's Lavor Postell was called for a foul as the ball was thrown in near midcourt. Leroy Hurd, a 62 percent free-throw shooter taking his first foul shot of the game, missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and during the scramble for the rebound, the buzzer sounded, setting off a wild celebration by St. John's.

"I thought it was going in. I thought it would fall, but it didn't fall," Hurd said. "I had a chance to do it, but I didn't. Missing it is very disappointing, but I have to move on. I took a couple of dribbles. I thought it would go in."

The championship game appearance is the second straight for the 19th-ranked Red Storm, and their fifth ever. They won the tournament in 1983 and 1986.

Two-time defending Big East champion Connecticut (24-8), which beat St. John's 82-63 last season, will be looking to become the first team to win three titles in a row.

It will be the first time the same teams met for the title in consecutive years, and the first time neither of the top two seeds made it since 1994.

"We feel very fortunate, very blessed to be playing for the Big East championship," Red Storm coach Mike Jarvis said. "We'll give it everything we've got, as we always do."

Jarvis received some surprising news after the game as sophomore guard Erick Barkley, the team's leading scorer who has suspended twice this season by the NCAA, said he would "take a leave of absence" and not play in the title game.

"I'm taking a leave of absence from the team, and that's my only statement," Barkley said, refusing to say anything else.

Jarvis later issued his own statement.

"Some things are bigger than wins," Jarvis said. "He's been through a tremendous amount. He's entitled to his own thoughts. It's all part of being a human being, and I respect him for that. I'm betting on Erick Barkley."

Barkley was suspended for three games by the NCAA in early February for exchanging vehicles with a family friend. After an appeal, that punishment was reduced to two games.

On Feb. 29, St. John's was forced to declare Barkley ineligible, and he missed that night's victory over Seton Hall. The NCAA requested further information regarding payment of part of Barkley's tuition at Maine Central Institute for the 1997-98 academic year. Though he was reinstated on March 3, Barkley must give back $3,500 of his tuition, which is approximately $22,000.

Before Friday night's game against Miami rumors were circulating that the NCAA was looking into Barkley's SAT history, but neither he nor the school commented on that.

Postell and Chudney Gray each had 14 points for St. John's, while Glover finished with seven points.

Elton Tyler had 15 points to lead the 23rd-ranked Hurricanes, who shared the regular-season title with Syracuse and had never reached the title game. Bland and Hemsley had 13 points each, while Hurd, who played nine minutes, did not score as Miami had its six-game winning streak, including a 74-70 overtime win over St. John's last Sunday, snapped.

"We put ourselves in a position to win and we were right there," Miami coach Leonard Hamilton said. "We'll learn from it. I can't fault our kids. It's part of the growing process."

St. John's, which has won 10 of 11 with the only loss being at Miami, took a 48-41 lead on a 3-pointer by Postell with 10:36 to play. The Hurricanes scored seven straight points, the last five by Hemsley, to close to 50-48 with 7:01 to play.

Hemsley's 3-pointer with 1:05 left, his third of the game in 10 attempts, brought Miami to 56-55.

Postell missed a jumper with 37 seconds left, and Miami ran the clock down until Bland's free throws with 7.6 seconds left gave it the lead for just the second time in the game.

"I thought we had the game, but they called a foul on my man Lavor," Glover said. "Then we had to see what they were going to do and fortunately they missed. Bye-bye."

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