KENNEDY OUSTED, St. JOHN'S COLLAPSES

January 23, 2009



Tempers and frustrations boiled over in the meeting between St. John's and Cincinnati at Carnesecca Arena last night. When order was restored, it was the Redstorm in Foul Mood After Collapse (Newsday) and their fifth loss in six Big East contests.

With the score 43-35 in favor of SJU following a DJ Kennedy three-pointer 2:57 into the second half, referee karl Hess stopped the game and issued a double technical to Kennedy and UC forward Rashad Bishop for excessive jawing that had been building throughout the game. When both continued even after being seperated and issued T's, Curtis Shaw then hit the pair again with double technicals, ejecting both from the game.

Already short on players because of a string of injuries (Anthony Mason, Malik Boothe and Rob Thomas unavailable), the double ejection crippled the Redstorm as UC Grinds out a Victory (Cincinnati Enquirer), outscoring SJU 36-17 over the final 17:03 of the game.

Deonta Vaughn scored 20 of his game-high 23 in the second half, including 10 in a row in a spurt that allowed UC to take control of the game after trailing 55-52 with 7:50 to go.

Bishop added 15 for the Bearcats despite missing the final 17 minutes.

Even though Kennedy Gets Thrown Out (Daily News), the Redstorm extended the lead to as many as 11, 51-40, with 13:16 left, but they managed just one field goal in the last 7:50 and were outscored 31-9 to close the game.

Paris Horne had 20 for the 'storm and Justin Burrell added 15. Sean Evans had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, but was just 4-13 from the foul line.

Notes:

-Cincinnati matched last year's win total (13-19) as they moved to 13-7 overall. They are not 3-4 in the Big East, winning three of their last four.

-UC was able to press SJU effectively as Boothe and Kennedy were unavailable the final 17 minutes, causing 21 turnovers.

-As a team, SJU was 14-31 from the foul line, aided by Evans' 4 of 13 effort.

-The Redstorm held a 43-33 rebounding edge, but it was negated by the 21 turnovers to UC just turning it over 10 times in the game.