Duke falls to St. John's on free throw

NEW YORK -- St. John's Marcus Hatten stood at the free throw line with the clock reading 0:00.0, ready to shoot free throws with the game tied at 71.

The senior guard carried the 28 points he had already scored and an image of practicing free throws inside his grandmother's house with him to the line.

"I had a vision that I was younger, shooting free throws in my grandmother's house," he said. "In there, you shoot it and try not to break a window or hit her. So if I can do that and not break a window or hit her, coming out here to shoot a free throw in front of 19,000 people, I thought that was easy."

Hatten bounced the first free throw off the rim and in, immediately bringing a rush of players and fans onto the court to celebrate St. John's (13-12) 72-71 stunning upset of No. 5 Duke (20-5) before a sellout crowd in Madison Square Garden Sunday.

Just four minutes earlier, the Blue Devils had led 71-60 and seemed on the verge of finishing off the Red Storm. But after St. John's Anthony Glover scored a layup inside, Duke's Chris Duhon overthrew a press-breaking pass that sailed out of bounds, Hatten drove for another layup and Duke lost the ball again on a shot clock violation, the ball was in the hands of the outstanding senior.

Hatten started to drive against Duke's Dahntay Jones, thought better of it, spun completely around and buried a three-pointer. Suddenly down by just four points, St. John's basked in the sudden cheering of the crowd, which had been largely silent until then. Buoyed by this support, the Red Storm forced another turnover and followed it with a three-pointer from Glover. With 1:49 remaining, St. John's trailed by only one.

On Duke's possession, J.J. Redick missed on a trifecta, and Jones, the Blue Devils' leading scorer on the night with 23 points, picked up his fifth foul. Kyle Cuffe made one of his two free throws to tie the game at 71-71. The Blue Devils then held the ball until there were less than 10 seconds left on the shot clock, before Duhon drove to the basket and fired up an out of control layup that whiffed the rim. The Red Storm missed a pair of shots and the Blue Devils took the ball back and held for the final shot.

Duhon and freshman Sean Dockery passed back and forth at the top of the key, before Duhon handed off to Daniel Ewing. The sophomore guard took it while cutting around Duhon and broke for center court to take a final shot. But Ewing ran smack into Hatten, who jarred the ball loose with 5.1 seconds remaining. St. John's leading scorer grabbed the loose ball and sprinted to the Duke basket, where he was fouled by Ewing as he went for the potentially game-winning basket.

But the Red Storm kept the game close throughout the first half by forcing turnovers and grabbing rebounds, and trailed 38-35 at the break. By the end of the game Duke had double the turnovers (16 to 8) of and seven fewer rebounds (34 to 41) than St. John's. Hatten paced the Red Storm with 11 in the first half despite picking up three fouls, but then exploded for 18 in the second stanza to improve on his average of 21.5 points per game. Duke tried nearly every guard on him--Duhon, Dockery, Jones and J.J. Redick--but none of them could consistently stop the agile scorer.

"We should have been better all game," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We didn't play nearly as well as we've been playing, and certainly a lot of that has to do with the intensity in which [St. John's] attacked the boards. They came to play today."