Refs, St. John's eliminate Rutgers

NEW YORK — No. 17 St. John's, despite not making a field goal over the final 4 minutes, got some of its Madison Square Garden magic back Wednesday with a wild 65-63 victory over Rutgers in the second round of the Big East tournament.

Dwight Hardy had 17 points for the fifth-seeded Red Storm (21-10), who improved to 8-1 on the Garden court this season with the win that sent them into the quarterfinals Thursday against fourth-seeded and 11th-ranked Syracuse (25-6).

It wasn't great plays by St. John's that will make this a memorable game. Big East commissioner John Marinatto issued a statement about 40 minutes after the game ended admitting there were two errors made by the veteran officiating crew.

The last minute that had two lead changes, two turnovers that were called, two that weren't and two missed free throws finished with Justin Brownlee of St. John's taking a couple of extra steps, stepping out of bounds and throwing the ball into the stands while the final 1.7 seconds ticked off the clock.

Rutgers coach Mike Rice ran around looking for an official to give him an explanation but they had walked off the court and the Red Storm had another big win at the Garden.

No. 25 Cincinnati 87, South Florida 61: Yancy Gates was nearly perfect from the field, scoring a career-high 25 points and leading Cincinnati to a rout of upstart South Florida in the Big East tournament.

Gates was 10-of-11 from the field for the seventh-seeded Bearcats, who will play No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the quarterfinals Thursday night. His only miss came with 8:35 left in the game.

No. 21 Connecticut 79, No. 22 Georgetown 62: Kemba Walker scored 28 points in another stellar performance, and Connecticut remained alive in the Big East tournament with an easy victory over Georgetown.

Despite being the higher-ranked team, the Huskies (23-9) had fallen all the way to the ninth seed in the conference tournament and were forced to beat DePaul in the opening round just to face the eighth-seeded Hoyas. UConn now gets top-seeded Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals.

Georgetown (21-10) still has not won since losing guard Chris Wright to a broken left hand.

Marquette 67, No. 20 West Virginia 61: Darius Johnson-Odom scored 11 points, including two big 3-pointers in the final minutes, and Marquette beat West Virginia 67-61 in the second round of the Big East tournament.

The 11th-seeded Golden Eagles (20-13) advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will face third-seeded and 14th-ranked Louisville (23-8) on Thursday night.