COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : St. John’s Players Are Virtuosos in Beating Ohio State : Midwest Regional: Redmen make it look easy against the top-seeded Buckeyes, 91-74.

Attendance was the big loser at the NCAA Midwest Regional basketball tournament after a sure-handed team from St. John’s won routinely, 91-74, over a clumsy bunch of Ohio State Buckeyes.

At least three-fifths of the crowd of 30,461 Friday night at the Pontiac Silverdome must have been from neighboring Ohio and will not be returning for Sunday’s region final against Duke. Goodby, Columbus.

They saw the Midwest’s top-seeded team take the worst beating of Ohio State’s NCAA tournament history. The Buckeyes never led and never got closer than 16 points during the second half.

So much for a team that had won 27 of its previous 30 games. Ohio State fared no better in this regional semifinal round than did Big Ten co-champion Indiana, which was manhandled every bit as roughly by Kansas.

The Buckeyes stopped nobody from a St. John’s squad that needed only five points from its bench. Malik Sealy scored 22 points, Robert Werdann 21 and guards Jason Buchanan and Chucky Sproling had 10 steals between them.

St. John’s was efficient, bordering on artistic.

“This was a Paganini,” said Redmen Coach Lou Carnesecca, invoking the name of the famed Italian violinist who died 150 years ago.

It would have suited a Massimino or a Valvano, too. A man-to-man defense smothered Ohio State’s Jimmy Jackson, who wasn’t helped by the elbow he caught in the opening minute that left him with a bandaged right eyebrow.

Jackson struggled his way to 19 points, but nothing could counter the fact that, as he said later: “We came out totally flat.”

The Buckeyes have been flat, inexplicably, for the past couple of weeks. They had stampeded through an unusually weak Big Ten and a nonconference schedule so soft it made USC’s resemble murderers’ row: Bethune-Cookman, Delaware State, Youngstown State, Chicago State, Wright State, American and Tennessee State.

Nervous, careless, whatever, the team could do nothing right from the opening tip. Mark Baker got a perfect alley-oop pass, soared above the rim and missed the dunk.

On St. John’s first trip downcourt, a shot and four putbacks led to a basket for the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Werdann, setting the tone for what followed. Ohio State’s play around the hoop made Werdann look like Shaquille O’Neal. He made eight of his nine shots and blocked four.

The score was 2-2 and never tied again. Sealy, a 6-8 forward and probably the best player on the floor, had 14 points by halftime. Buchanan, a 6-2 guard, had seven assists and four steals by then.

A 19-point advantage at halftime for a team as fundamentally strong as St. John’s was enough to send Ohioans in the crowd heading for home, although none were.

Things got so desperate that they were on their feet, making deafening noise, after Jackson’s jam with 12:15 to play . . . which cut St. John’s lead to 16 points.

Soon, Jackson was flipping no-look passes to teammates who weren’t looking, instead waving the white flag, trailing, 81-59. It was their worst NCAA tournament loss since a 14-pointer to North Carolina in 1968, and they were bound for Columbus, where they play in--insult to injury--St. John Arena.

“You can’t get 18 or 19 points down and come back on a good team like St. John’s,” said Coach Randy Ayers. “They beat us to every loose ball and did a great job attacking our press. St. John’s played a whale of a game.”

Carnesecca, 66, has never won a championship. Sunday, he will try for his second Final Four trip.

“Don’t ask me who I would rather play,” Carnesecca said. “I’d rather play nobody. I’d rather pack my bags and go home and enjoy this one.”