Who said sequels never live up to the original?
Almost exactly one year after Duke survived a double-overtime shootout with St. John's at Madison Square Garden, the two teams got together again Saturday and waged another war for the ages.
A wide-open Bootsy Thornton fired the game-winning salvo from just inside the three-point line over the outstretched hands of Shane Battier with under 12 seconds left in Saturday's clash, delivering St. John's (20-6) a thrilling 83-82 victory against Duke (22-4) in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"The play was for Erick [Barkley]-a screen and roll," said Thornton, who led all scorers with 22 points. "They doubled up on him, and I was wide open. I took the shot. I thought it was three, but the ref counted a two. In the end, it didn't matter."
With St. John's down by one at 82-81 with under 40 seconds left, Lavor Postell had a chance to give the Red Storm the lead but missed from the lane. Erick Barkley, however, recovered the long rebound, the Red Storm's 14th offensive rebound of the game, and spotted Thornton alone on the right wing.
"The ball just came out to [Barkley], it was just that type of play the whole game," Jason Williams said. "If we had gotten the defensive rebounds from the start, it never would have happened. Erick got the rebound, kicked it out to [Thornton], it was like he was in his own little world. Nobody was around him. You give any player that amount of time, he'll knock down a shot."
With one last chance to win the game, Chris Carrawell delivered a pass inside to Carlos Boozer, but Barkley knocked the ball away with five seconds left. Mike Krzyzewski called his last timeout to set up a play for Battier, who had been red hot early, scoring 11 of his 12 points in the first nine minutes of the game.
Battier couldn't
With Battier unable to free himself, Carrawell dumped the inbound pass in to Boozer, who gave it right back to Carrawell. With Thornton and Anthony Glover draped all over him, Carrawell awkwardly fired up a desperation three that never had a chance, bouncing off the back rim.
"Anthony and Bootsy doubled [Carrawell] hard and made him force up a bad shot," Barkley said. "I was just running around the gym with my hands on my ears, just happy, just overjoyed. Everybody was out there just looking at their feet, and everybody looking stunned like we couldn't do it, but we did it."
But for the first nine minutes of the game, everybody was right.
After St. John's stormed out to a 10-5 lead early, the Blue Devils went on a 22-5 surge over the next six minutes, culminated by a Battier bomb from well beyond the three-point line.
Although similar Duke runs have demoralized other opponents, St. John's withstood the Blue Devils' rally and clawed its way back into the game. The Red Storm handcuffed Duke center Carlos Boozer inside and held Duke to only nine points in the last 11 minutes of the half.
In a play that epitomized Duke's struggles on offense, Nate James bounced a pass off an unsuspecting Shane Battier's back late in the first half, Barkley picked up the loose ball and found Thornton for a layup in transition to give St. John's a 39-38 lead heading into the locker room.
"The only way you're going to win here is if you somehow just persevere," St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said. "The resiliency our kids showed in the game is a reflection of their character, where they've come from and where they want to go. They really believe they can play anybody, at anywhere and anytime."
Midway through the second half, it not only
Trailing by three with six minutes gone in the second half, the Red Storm took off on a blistering 10-0 run. The surge began with an old-fashioned 15-foot jumper by Donald Emanuel and ended with a breathtaking alley-oop from Barkley to Postell on the break.
Just when folks began penciling in Duke's second loss at home this season, the Blue Devils battled back. And with five minutes left in the game, Williams recaptured a one-point lead for Duke with a three-pointer, assisted by a stumbling James.
The two teams then traded baskets in the final five minutes with neither team taking more than a four-point lead.
"It was amazing, this almost reminds me of a Broadway hit," Jarvis said. "People came to this game tonight expecting a great game, I told some people, 'Don't be disappointed if it doesn't come close to last year.' And with about four minutes left in the game, I leaned over to my son (assistant coach Mike Jarvis Jr.) and said 'This is incredible.'"
With under a minute left and his team down two, James buried a three-pointer from the right corner, giving his team its final lead of the game and setting the stage for the last-second dramatics in a game that left the audience in awe, the Red Storm in ecstacy and the Blue Devils in a daze.
"During warm-ups, it seemed like everyone was just going through the motions, we can't have that with this team," Williams said. "We're not the best team, we're not that great at all.
"We had a chance to win that game, we just didn't capitalize. It felt like we left everything on the court, and we lost. It was definitely a heartbreaker."
Note: St. John's win snapped Duke's 64-game winning streak against non-ranked opponents, dating back to 1997.
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