College Basketball Roundup : St. John’s Improves to 21-1 as Pittsburgh Falls, 84-63

Chris Mullin scored 21 points and Walter Berry added 17 Friday night as top-ranked St. John’s registered its 16th consecutive victory, an 84-63 Big East Conference decision over Pittsburgh at New York.

Center Bill Wennington added 16 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and Friday’s Games

had five blocked shots for the Redmen, 21-1 overall and 12-0 in the Big East.

Freshman Charles Smith scored a game-high 25 points for the Panthers, 15-8 and 6-6, who saw a five-game winning streak snapped.

The Redmen jumped to a 46-33 halftime advantage behind 13 points from Mullin and 9 from Berry. Smith converted a three-point play 1:01 into the second half and that 10-point deficit was as close as Pittsburgh could get the rest of the way.

St. John’s, which shot 67% in the first half compared to 33% for the Panthers, turned a 14-10 advantage into a 37-14 lead as it held Pitt to just two field goals--both by Andre Williams on follow shots--over a 7:05 span.

Pittsburgh then ran off a 19-9 spurt to account for the halftime margin as Smith scored eight points, six on offensive rebounds.

Yale 48, Princeton 46--Sophomore center Chris Dudley scored on a tap-in with one second remaining to give Yale the victory at New Haven, Conn.

Dudley grabbed the rebound of a shot by teammate Brian Fitzpatrick that fell short of the rim and laid it in just before the buzzer.

Yale, which improved its record to 10-10, 3-5 in the Ivy League, is one win short of its 1,000th victory. Princeton falls to 6-12, 2-4 in the Ivy League.

University of San Diego 60, Santa Clara 57--Pete Murphy scored 19 points to lead the Toreros to the upset win at Santa Clara.

San Diego, trailing by two points at halftime, took the lead for good on two free throws by James Knight with 8:13 left in the game, and increased its advantage to 54-48 with 1:40 to go.

Center Nick Vanos led the Broncos with 17 points.

The victory improves the Toreros record to 14-8, 3-4 in WCAC play. Santa Clara slips to 6-7, 5-2.