By Dylan Butler
The tape in the VCR in the St. John’s women’s basketball office is almost worn out. But Kim Barnes-Arico and her staff continue to rewind and play Saturday’s game at Rutgers. The count is somewhere near 100 by now.
That’s because the Red Storm came remarkably close to pulling off an upset of monumental proportions, falling to No. 23 Rutgers 70-64 on the road in double overtime.
St. John’s led at halftime and had a chance to win it with five seconds left in regulation, but an inbound pass under the Rutgers basket was tipped away by the Scarlet Knights.
“From a coaching standpoint, I don’t think it was moral victory,” Barnes-Arico said. “But in terms of the players and the program, we took a top 25 team to double overtime. We took a step and a lot of other teams in the conference have to really take a look at that.”
Danielle Rainey scored a game-high 20 points and had 4 assists, Shemika Stevens added 18 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals, and Reka Szavuly scored 12 points, on four three-pointers.
St. John’s (7-11, 1-6 Big East) led 31-26 at halftime, after shooting 75 percent (3-for-4) from beyond the arc and 76.9 percent (10-for-13) from the foul line.
Barnes-Arico credits the Red Storm’s 67-62 victory at Providence Jan. 22, which snapped a 24-game conference losing streak, with the team’s boost in confidence.
“It showed the kids not only can we win, but we can compete with a top 25 team on any given night,” the first-year coach said. “Now we have to see if we can do it night in and night out.”
Stevens registered career highs in points (19) and rebounds (10) in the win at Providence. Szavuly scored a career-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including three three-pointers, and Rainey netted 17, including 11 from the foul line.
After hosting Syracuse in a game scheduled for Wednesday night, the Red Storm plays at Pittsburgh Saturday at 2 p.m. and is home for No. 3 Connecticut Tuesday night.
The White stuff
For a second time this year, Erin White, a freshman on the Queens College women’s basketball team, was named New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week.
The former St. Francis Prep standout averaged 16.5 points and 4 rebounds per game for the Lady Knights in a 1-1 week. The shooting guard from Flushing had 14 points and 4 rebounds in a loss to Philadelphia University Jan. 21 and then scored 19 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and had 4 steals against first-place St. Thomas Aquinas Saturday.
Swishin’ and Dishin’
Antawn Dobie scored a team-high 16 points and 5 rebounds, but it was his seventh assist that proved to be the difference as he found Raymond Edwards for the game-winning layup to lift Long Island University to a 73-72 win over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County Saturday at the Schwartz Center in Brooklyn.
Former Forest Hills standout Dawan Gary added 10 points and 8 rebounds in the victory. Molloy alum Justin Wilson had 15 points for UMBC.
Wilson, a 6-foot-1 senior guard from Brooklyn, followed with 12 points and 4 steals in a 69-66 win over St. Francis College Monday.
In the game of the day Monday, former Cardozo standout Royal Ivey had 6 points (3-for-6 from the field) and 4 rebounds for No. 3 Texas, but it wasn’t enough to defeat sixth-ranked Kansas as the Jayhawks avoided their first three-game losing streak since 1993-94 with a thrilling 90-87 victory in Lawrence, Kan.
Jamaica native Cheyne Gadson scored 8 points in 13 minutes as No. 9 Oklahoma State extended the nation’s best winning streak to 14 games in a 79-70 win over conference foe Texas Tech Sunday.
Gadson, a 6-foot-3 senior guard out of Jamaica High School by way of Westchester Community College, shot 3-for-4 from the field and was 2-for-2 from the foul line. He also had 2 assists for the Cowboys.
Rashad Bell, a 6-foot-8 sophomore forward out of St. Francis Prep, scored a career-high 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 from the foul line, but it wasn’t enough to lift Boston University in a 72-69 loss to Beantown rival Northeastern Saturday.
Former Robeson standout Kenny Adeleke, a 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Rochdale Village, scored a team-high 23 points (10-of-16 from the field). Christ the King graduate and Jackson Heights resident Mike Radziejewski, a 6-foot-5 sophomore swingman, added 16 points, including four three-pointers for Hofstra in a 78-66 loss to Drexel Saturday.
Queensbridge native Jave Meade, a 6-foot-1 junior point guard out of Christ the King, had 10 points for Holy Cross in a 72-49 loss at American Sunday.
Another former CK guard, 6-foot-3 junior Kason Mims from Astoria and by way of Milford Academy (Conn.), had 14 points and 7 rebounds for Quinnipiac in a 100-90 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson Monday.
Christine Catalanotto, a former standout at Christ the King, had 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals for UMBC in a 68-48 win at St. Francis College last Thursday.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by email at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
