Hatten’s Gamble Pays Off for St. John’s

Marcus Hatten loves taking gambles. His biggest one Tuesday night helped St. John’s reach the National Invitation Tournament final.

Hatten stole the ball from Will Chavis and made a layup with 16.2 seconds remaining to give the Red Storm a 64-63 victory over Texas Tech and Bob Knight in the semifinals at New York.

“I was reading the guy with the ball [Chavis], and I knew he was going to pass it,” Hatten said. “So I just turned my back like I wasn’t paying him no mind.”

The Red Storm (20-13) held on in the closing seconds after Hatten, who had a team-high 24 points, missed two free throws with 4.1 seconds left. Texas Tech (21-13) got the ball after a timeout, and Chavis missed a three-point shot at the buzzer, sending Red Storm fans running onto the Madison Square Garden court.

The hometown Red Storm, making its first NIT appearance since 1995, has won an NIT-record five championships, the last one in 1989.

“When you get a guy like Marcus Hatten, you never know what he’ll do,” Coach Mike Jarvis said. “Anything can happen. The thing that is so great about him is that he gambles like crazy. I don’t know if I’d ever want to go to Vegas with him.”

Georgetown 88, Minnesota 74 -- Craig Esherick always knew his team could win big games in the postseason. The Georgetown coach didn’t know if it would be this season.

Having Mike Sweetney makes a lot of things possible.

Sweetney scored 32 points to lead the Hoyas (19-14) to the championship game.

“Even at the lowest point of the season, I never once thought that we didn’t have a good team,” Esherick said. “We knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel. We were trying to find it.”

The Gophers (19-13) appeared to have found a solution for Sweetney after he scored 17 points in the first half. They held him scoreless through the early minutes of the second half and pulled to within one point.

But Sweetney got rolling, dunking for a 53-50 lead with 14:44 to play and sparking a 13-2 run. Sweetney scored six points during the run, helping Georgetown retake control.

“I know my team,” Sweetney said.

“My team knew what to do in a difficult situation to get the ball to me.”

Rick Rickert led the Gophers with 17 points and Ben Johnson had 15.