Thornton in Duke's side
Bootsy scores 40, but Devils outlast St. John's in OT
Posted: Sunday January 24, 1999 05:24 PM
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Duke's Chris Carrawell jams down two of the 17 points he scored in Duke's 92-88 overtime victory AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- No. 2 Duke is not accustomed to winning like this. Nor are the Blue Devils accustomed to seeing a performance like the one by Bootsy Thornton of St. John's.
The Blue Devils (19-1) beat No. 8 St. John's 92-88 in overtime Sunday despite a career-high 40 points and 12 rebounds by Thornton, who scored 23 of the Red Storm's final 36 points.
The win was Duke's 14th straight and it was the closest of the streak with only two of those games less than 20-point victories.
St. John's (16-4) was playing without its leading rebounder, Tyrone Grant, who is sidelined indefinitely with a broken right wrist, and nearly the entire team was in foul trouble in the second half.
Still, the Red Storm stayed close, never letting Duke pull away and even taking a 76-75 lead with 1:37 left in regulation on a three-point play by Ron Artest.
Duke players hug after a tough overtime victory as Ron Artest leaves the floor AP |
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Two free throws by Nate James with 9.3 seconds left gave Duke an 81-78 lead, but Artest, who had missed most of the second half with four fouls, hit a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to force the overtime.
Thornton gave the Red Storm an 84-81 lead two minutes into overtime, but the Blue Devils, who had struggled from the foul line all game, suddenly found the mark and made nine of 11 the rest of the way. The last three came by Chris Carrawell over the final 18 seconds after Thornton had pulled St. John's within 89-88 with his seventh 3-pointer of the game.
Carrawell had 17 points to lead six Blue Devils in double figures. Elton Brand had 16 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots for Duke, while Trajan Langdon had 15 points and was 7-for-8 from the free-throw line as the Blue Devils, who came in shooting 73 percent, finished 24-of-37.
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"That was the greatest game I was ever in and we won. When we went down in overtime I thought we might lose, but we still had guys who came through for us." --Duke center Elton Brand
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He was 14-of-24 from the field, including 7-of-11 from 3-point range. Artest finished with 22 points, and Erick Barkley had 12 points and 11 assists for the Red Storm, who had four players foul out.
The loss snapped St. John's four-game winning streak and was the fifth straight time it has lost to Duke.
The crowd of 19,528 was the first sellout for a college regular-season game at Madison Square Garden since Connecticut-St. John's in 1996.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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