EAST REGIONAL : Arkansas Is Able to Tire Cain, St. John’s

David Cain carried St. John’s, until he hit the wall.

Arkansas’ constant pressure wore out the Redman point guard and the Razorbacks pulled away in the final minutes for an 80-74 victory in the

East Regional.

“When we inserted Clint McDaniel into the game, he wore Cain out,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. “You have to cut the head off the body, and Cain is the head. And when you can cut the head off, the body doesn’t function well.”

Cain scored 19 points and kept St. John’s (19-11) in the lead for much of the game by breaking the relentless Arkansas defensive pressure, but he was worn out in the final moments and committed a key turnover and a charging foul.

He made seven of the Redmen’s 19 turnovers.

“Everything they did we expected,” said Cain, who sat out seven minutes of the first half with three fouls. “We just didn’t handle it in the last four minutes.

“I started to wear down a little bit and that probably contributed to a few turnovers.”

St. John’s set the game’s tempo for the most part and had Arkansas (22-8) down by 10 points midway through the second half by running a deliberate offense and getting the ball inside.

But the Razorback pressure took its toll.

“It’s the type of pressure that we put on people that gets everybody else going,” said Darrell Hawkins, who scored 20 points for the Razorbacks. “We were sitting on the bench and you could just feel it coming. Once we got back in the game, there was no way we were turning around.”

But the Redmen were so tired in the final 20 seconds they couldn’t even foul the Razorbacks in an attempt to rally from a six-point deficit.

“Our guys did such an excellent job of spreading the floor and moving the basketball we didn’t want to be fouled, and those guys were tired,” Richardson said. “Sometimes you can’t foul.

“If you look at a tape of the last part of that ballgame you can see those kids (St. John’s) are giving everything they had.”.

Arkansas will play top-seeded North Carolina (30-4) in the East Regional semifinals at the East Rutherford, N.J., on Friday.

“I always enjoy playing the magic men,” Richardson said. “I enjoy playing the Dean Smiths, the Bobby Knights, Coach K. I enjoy playing those guys because if I accidentally win, then I may know more about the game.”