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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Northern Arizona nearly did what the NCAA
couldn't: end the season for St. John's and Erick Barkley.
Barkley's steal with three seconds left sealed a 61-56 victory
over Northern Arizona on Thursday night after Lavor Postell's
three-point play gave the second-seeded Red Storm the lead with
10.9 seconds left.
"I expected to have a tough game, but I did not expect anything
like that," St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said. "We obviously did
not put forth our best effort, but we came through when it counted
at the end."
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Thu, March 16
St. John's closed out Northern Arizona on Lavor Postell's drive to the basket in the final minute, but the Red Storm's first-round survival could be a poor sign for their chances to go deep in this tournament.
St. John's has survived the last month by pulling out late-game heroics, but it can't last long with Gonzaga looming. Northern Arizona wasn't able to stand in Postell's way in the lane to prevent the winning basket, but Gonzaga's interior of Casey Calvary and Zach Gourde probably won't get beat in the lane that easily. If the Red Storm advance deeper in the bracket, they could struggle to find the basket against the likes of Texas' Chris Mihm or LSU's Jabari Smith -- even Arizona's Richard Jefferson.
St. John's needs to be more aggressive at attacking the basket earlier in the game, to ensure it won't get into positions where it needs a drive to win it. The Red Storm don't do well when they stand around, and they let Northern Arizona dictate tempo too often. Gonzaga has the ability to do that as well, which could signal a potential early exit for the consensus pick out of the West.
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Backed by a spirited crowd, 15th-seeded Northern Arizona once
again came close to pulling off a tournament upset. The Lumberjacks
(20-11) lost 65-62 to Cincinnati in the 1998 tournament.
"It hurts. It really hurts," coach Mike Adras said. "We
believed we were going to win this game. We really did. We planned
on playing on Saturday. It sounds crazy but we did."
Instead, it will be St. John's (25-7) against Gonzaga, which
beat Louisville 77-66 earlier Thursday night. In the other two
games in Tucson, No. 6 Purdue beat No. 11 Dayton 62-61 and
third-seeded Oklahoma beat No. 14 Winthrop 74-50.
For a brief time it looked like a 15th seed could beat a No. 2
for the fourth time. Cory Schwab's 3-pointer from the corner with
29.1 seconds to play gave the Lumberjacks their first lead of the
second half, 56-55.
But St. John's wasn't flustered. Northern Arizona had three
fouls to give before putting St. John's in the bonus and committed
one with 13.8 seconds left.
Ross Land tried to get another as Postell drove into the lane.
But the referees didn't make the call until after Postell hit a
leaner to give St. John's the lead.
Postell, who had scored only nine points before making the
go-ahead bucket, added the free throw to put the Red Storm up by
two.
"I had kind of let my teammates down," Postell said. "At the
end, I finally did something right and it just turned out to be the
game-winner."
The Lumberjacks called timeout and got the ball into the front
court before Barkley stole the ball from Land.
"He put the ball in my face," Barkley said with a smile. "I
had no choice really."
Barkley hit one free throw with 2.6 seconds left. Bootsy
Thornton, who led St. John's with 20 points, rebounded the miss on
the second shot and scored to ice the game.
|  | | St. John's Anthony Glover drives for two of his 10 points as Northern Arizona's Joel Rieck defends. |
"We just wanted to come out there and win tonight," Thornton
said. "But this was too close for comfort. We did not take
advantage of the opportunities we were given, but you have to give
a lot of credit to Northern Arizona."
St. John's overcame a feisty Northern Arizona team and
enthusiastic fans, many of whom made the 4½-hour trip from
Flagstaff. Chants of "N-A-U!" reverberated throughout the arena
as the Lumberjacks players and coaches urged the fans on at every
timeout.
"It was amazing," Land said. "It was really fun to play in an
atmosphere like this. We don't have crowds like that up at NAU."
But that wasn't enough to top a St. John's team that has been
surrounded by turmoil the entire season.
Barkley was suspended twice in February for a total of three
games for violating NCAA rules and has been the target of a probe
up until this past week. He and Postell met with investigators on
Monday but were cleared to play in the tournament.
None of that has affected St. John's, which has won 11 of 12
games since the first suspension on Feb. 3. But the Lumberjacks
almost did.
Seven-footer Dan McClintock used his 6-inch height advantage to
score 18 points and grab eight rebounds. Billy Hix added 14 points
and 12 rebounds.
But Northern Arizona's 3-point shooters, who carried them into
the tournament by hitting 16 of 27 in the Big Sky title game, were
held in check by the Red Storm's swarming perimeter defense.
"They came out aggressive and I wasn't able to get a whole lot
of looks," Land said. "Later on we did get some looks, but we
didn't shoot it like we have."
Land, fifth in 3-point accuracy in NCAA history, was 3-of-9 from
long range and Schwab missed his first five attempts before giving
the Lumberjacks the lead on his jumper from the corner.
Northern Arizona shot 7-of-23 overall from 3-point range.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Northern Arizona NCAA Team Report
St Johns NCAA Team Report
Chat: NCAA Tourney
Deja vu: Gonzaga upends No. 7 seed Louisville
Sooners enjoy a 3-for-all against ice-cold Winthrop
Purdue grounds Flyers for 7th straight first-round win
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Post-game news conference from St. John's win over No. Arizona.
RealVideo: | 28.8
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