NEW YORK — No. 17 St. John's, despite not making a field goal over the final 4 minutes, got some of its Madison Square Garden magic back Wednesday with a 65-63 victory over Rutgers in the second round of the Big East tournament.
Dwight Hardy had 17 points for the fifth-seeded Red Storm (21-10), who improved to 8-1 on the Garden court this season with the win that sends them into the quarterfinals Thursday against fourth-seeded and 11th-ranked Syracuse (25-6).
It's St. John's 20th quarterfinal appearance, but first since 2003, and it certainly didn't come easy.
James Beatty had 15 points for the Scarlet Knights (15-17), who advanced to the second round with an overtime win over Seton Hall on Tuesday.
Sean Evans had 13 points and nine rebounds for St. John's but the 55 percent free throw shooter came up big on the line, making both ends of a 1-and-1 with 17.7 seconds left that gave the Red Storm a 64-61 lead.
Mike Coburn made two free throws with 14.3 seconds left to bring the Scarlet Knights within 64-63. St. John's turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. After a timeout Coburn missed a drive with 8 seconds left.
Justin Brownlee missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 7.3 seconds left but Paris Horne crashed the boards on the miss and knocked the ball out of bounds off Jonathan Mitchell of Rutgers.
D.J. Kennedy was fouled with 4.9 seconds left and made the second of two for a 65-63 lead.
Rutgers still had one chance but a long pass just inside midcourt was knocked away and no foul was called. Brownlee picked up the loose ball, appeared to take a couple of steps then stepped out of bounds before throwing the ball into the stands with time still left on the clock.
Rutgers coach Mike Rice ran around looking for an official to give him an explanation but they had walked off the court and the Red Storm had another big win at the Garden.
Brownlee had 13 points and Kennedy added 11 for St. John's.
Coburn finished with 11 points and Gilvydas Biruta had 10 points and eight rebounds for Rutgers.
Under first-year coach Steve Lavin, the Red Storm closed the season winning nine of 11 and all but one of the six wins against ranked teams came at the Garden. The lone loss was 79-56 to Syracuse on Jan. 12.