COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : St. John’s Remains Perfect in Its Own Tournament

St. John’s kept up its winning tradition in its own Joe Lapchick Memorial tournament and the 20th-ranked Redmen also kept up their string of injuries this season.

Robert Werdann scored 20 points and had 16 rebounds as St. John’s frontline starters outscored Wright State’s, 52-26, and outrebounded the Raiders, 48-25, in Sunday’s 76-56 victory in the championship game.

St. John’s (5-1) has won all 15 editions of the tournament, which honors the memory of a former St. John’s coach, and is 30-0 in the event.

But the biggest concern after the game was the sprained right ankle of starting point guard Boo Harvey. He sustained the injury just before coming out of the game with the Redmen enjoying a big lead.

St. John’s is playing without last season’s leading scorer and rebounder, Jayson Williams, who has a fractured right foot and will not be back until around Christmas.

Wright State (2-1), an independent school in just its third season in Division I, stayed with the Redmen for the first 10 minutes and held its last lead at 19-18 with 9:39 left in the first half.

That’s when Jason Buchanan started a 25-8 run for the Redmen with two three-point shots. Werdann scored six more points in the run and Buchanan had four more as the Redmen led, 43-29, at halftime.

South Alabama 77, U. San Diego 72--Kevin McDaniels made an 18-foot jump shot with 24 seconds left and then added four free throws with three seconds left to give the Jaguars the win in the third-place game of the Lapchick tournament.

San Diego’s final points came on a jump shot by Anthony Thomas with 2:05 to play and it gave the Toreros (2-3) a 72-66 lead.

South Alabama (2-2) then made three free throws before Marvin Eackles made jump shot to pull the Jaguars within one with 1:27 left. San Diego’s Wayman Strickland missed a jump shot with 44 seconds left before McDaniels gave the Jaguars the lead.

North Carolina 87, Towson State 70--Scott Williams scored 20 points and the Tar Heels shot 61% in the first half as the 12th-ranked Tar Heels won easily at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Towson State (2-1) trailed, 78-58, with six minutes left, but went on an 11-2 run, pulling to 80-66. Guard Kurk Lee scored 11 of his game-high 26 points during the run.

But Williams made two free throws and a jump shot with four minutes left and the Tar Heels (4-2) coasted the rest of the way.

Vanderbilt 68, Virginia 64--Derrick Wilcox made two free throws with two seconds left to give the Commodores the win at Nashville, Tenn.

The winning free throws came after Kenny Turner had pulled the Cavaliers even at 64-64 with a three-point shot with 1:01 to play.

Vanderbilt’s Morgan Wheat stole the Virginia in-bounds pass after Wilcox’ free throws and was fouled. He made two free throws with no time left.