NCAA Midwest Regional Second Round : DePaul Squanders Lead, Beats St. John’s in OT

DePaul, having squandered a 14-point lead earlier in the half, overcame a five-point deficit in the final 45 seconds of regulation Sunday and beat St. John’s, 83-75, in overtime in a second-round game of the Midwest Regional.

DePaul’s 17th straight home victory moved the fifth-ranked Blue Demons into the regional semifinals Friday night at Cincinnati.

They’ll face Louisiana State, which upset eighth-ranked Temple, 72-62, earlier Sunday.

St. John’s, which trailed early in the second half, 46-32, rallied to tie the score at 57-57 on a three-point shot by guard Mark Jackson with 7:05 left. Jackson led St. John’s with 23 points.

The Redmen (21-9) moved ahead and led, 69-65, with 19 seconds left before Dallas Comegys and Rod Strickland scored for DePaul (28-2) to send the game into overtime.

Comegys made a short jumper and was fouled with 12 seconds left, but missed the free throw. DePaul got the rebound and Strickland scored on a twisting left-handed layup to tie it at 69-69.

Comegys said he missed the free throw on purpose. “I didn’t think a free throw was going to be any good for us,” he said.

DePaul Coach Joey Meyer said that Comegys, a 66% free-throw shooter in the regular season, “has had a lot of practice missing.”

After Strickland’s shot, Jackson drove the length of the floor for St. John’s, but missed a 10-foot shot with two seconds left.

St. John’s scored first in the overtime, but Strickland made two free throws and Kevin Edwards scored on a layup to put DePaul ahead, 73-71.

Willie Glass, who scored 19 points, tied it with 3:15 remaining, but St. John’s was outscored, 10-2, the rest of the way.

DePaul “came out in overtime and hit some key baskets,” Jackson said. “We missed a couple of tough ones. They just outplayed us in overtime.”

Comegys, who scored 15 points, made a shot and later added two free throws to put DePaul ahead, 77-73, with 1:49 left. Edwards, who led DePaul with 26 points, made four straight free throws in the final minute.

“The Lord took care of the (New York) Mets and he took care of the (New York) Giants,” Meyer said. “I guess the Lord took care of someone from the Windy City today.”

LSU 72, Temple 62--Anthony Wilson scored 21 points and the Tigers, who finished seventh in the Southeastern Conference, let loose their “freak defense” on the Atlantic 10 champions.

“The freak took them out of their offense,” said LSU Coach Dale Brown, describing the “freak” as a combination of eight or nine defenses that can be changed quickly on an inbounds pass or a signal from the bench. “We spasmodically injected a man-to-man to confuse them.”

Temple (32-4) made only 36% of its shots and if not for the three-point shooting of Mike Vreeswyk, who scored 26 points, wouldn’t have been as close as it was.

Temple Coach John Chaney praised the LSU defense, but criticized the officials for letting LSU push his players around.

“They weren’t calling the hand-checking early,” he said. “My crying was about that. They threatened me with a technical, so I backed off.”

LSU (23-14) built a 51-38 lead midway through the second half.

Temple then cut the lead to 61-58 with 4:35 left as Vreeswyk made five straight three-point shots at one point.

But LSU then spread the court and made its free throws to win.

Darryl Joe, who scored 19 points, made seven free throws down the stretch and Wilson made six.

LSU took only 13 shots in the second half and made only one in the last 10 minutes, a three-pointer by Joe with 2:25 remaining that gave the Tigers a 64-58 lead.