Michigan
St. John's
No. 19 St. John's Hands Wolverines Third Straight Loss
12/3/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The University of Michigan men's basketball dropped its third straight contest, falling 97-83 to St. John's (No. 19 AP, No. 21 ESPN/USA Today) in the consolation game of the BB&T Classic Sunday (Dec. 3) at the MCI Center. Freshman Avery Queen (Moreno Valley, Calif./Redemption Christian Academy [N.Y.]) finished with a career-high 14 points while grabbing two rebounds and a steal.
Freshman Bernard Robinson Jr. (Washington, D.C./New Hampton Prep [N.H.]) and sophomore LaVell Blanchard (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer HS) each finished with 18 points. Robinson Jr. also had three rebounds and three assists, while Blanchard had nine rebounds and two assists. Freshman Josh Moore (Newark, N.J./St. Thomas More Prep [Conn.]) finished with a solid eight points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes of action.
Michigan controlled the tipoff in the first half but turned it over on its first possession. St. John's marched down the floor on its opening possession only to turn it over itself. After a Michigan errant pass, the Red Storm broke up the court, only to have the pass stolen right back by Queen, who launched it down low to Chris Young (Plymouth, Mich./Detroit Catholic Central HS), whose turnaround jumper opened the scoring. Michigan went on a 6-0 run to start the game before Anthony Glover snapped the Red Storm drought, scoring their first five points with a jumper and three free throws. But Blanchard answered right back with a putback to give the Wolverines a 10-5 lead with 15:36 to go.
The back-and-forth play continued before Queen and Robinson Jr. each hit a pair of free throws to give the Wolverines a five-point lead, 18-13 with 11:28 remaining. The Wolverines continue to control the pace of the game as they built their lead to 11 after a Josh Asselin (Caro, Mich./Caro HS) layup and a soft turnaround jumper by Moore. Moore then came up big again, drawing a charging call underneath the basket as the Wolverines had all the momentum.
But St. John's Willie Shaw hit one of his five triples on the night to break the drought and swing the momentum towards the Red Storm's favor. St. John's would then go on an 8-0 run to get within one point of tying the ballgame. The Wolverines responded with a Young jump hook, but St. John's guard Omar Cook would hit a three-pointer and then a layup with 10 seconds to go, followed by a Reggie Jessie steal and layup to give the Red Storm the lead, 36-34, as the buzzer ended the half.
The second half began with the Michigan bench receiving a technical foul after arguing a call with the official, but the Wolverines recovered and regained the lead on a pair of Blanchard free throws, 42-41 with 17:06 remaining. Unfortunately for the Maize and Blue that would be its last lead as the Red Storm pushed the ball down in the block and drew Wolverine fouls. St. John's went on a 10-0 run to increase its advantage to 59-50 with 11:12 to go.
The pace of the game went back and forth from then on as the Wolverines tried to make a comeback with the play of Queen, Robinson Jr. and Blanchard. But the Red Storm attack grew to be too much as Shaw and Cook hit three-pointers at key times to break any Maize and Blue attack. The Wolverines were then forced to foul to stop the clock, but the Red Storm would sustain any Wolverine attack as they finished with the 14-point victory, 97-83.
The Wolverines are off for a full week before they travel to Durham, N.C., to take on No. 1 Duke Saturday, Dec. 9, at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The 9 p.m. game against the Blue Devils will be broadcast on ESPN.
N O T E S
-- Freshman Avery Queen had a career-high 14 points. His previous best was 10 against Wagner (Nov. 25). He also collected a steal for the sixth consecutive game. He leads the team with nine total steals.
-- Sophomore Gavin Groninger made his second start of the season and 12th of his career.
-- Freshman Bernard Robinson Jr. tied a career high with three assists. He recorded the same amount of freebies against Western Michigan (Nov. 21).
Contact: Tom Wywrot (734) 763-4423
