St. John's 53, Cincinnati 52
CINCINNATI -- D'Angelo Harrison's jumper with 29 seconds remaining lifted St. John's to a 53-52 upset of 14th-ranked Cincinnati on Saturday at Fifth Third Arena.
JaKarr Sampson scored a team-leading 16 points as the Red Storm beat the Bearcats on Cincinnati's home floor for the consecutive season. Harrison, who averaged 22.1 points per game coming in, scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, including the game-winner.
St. John's (8-5, 0-1 Big East) forced 16 turnovers and had five blocked shots.
Cincinnati (13-1, 1-0 Big East), which shot just 31.7 percent, trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half before storming back.
Cashmere Wright, who led all scorers with 23 points, including five 3-pointers, scored on a layup to put Cincinnati ahead with 53 seconds left, setting up Harrison's heroics.
Titus Rubles added 14 points for the Bearcats, including three 3-pointers.
Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin had challenged his team this week to get off to a faster start in games, something they hadn't done recently but still had managed to rally in the second half to win.
Wright got the Bearcats started on Saturday by scoring UC's first eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
St. John's began the game 0-for-5 from the field with two turnovers. Chris Obekpa's dunk was the Red Storm's first field goal with 14:16 left in the first half.
Midway through the first half, St. John's was just 2 of 11 from the field with four turnovers but only trailed by two points.
Wright's third 3-pointer put UC ahead 19-12. But the Red Storm responded with an 8-0 run to grab their first lead.
Cincinnati struggled on offense early in the game, shooting just 28.6 percent with four assists and 11 turnovers in the first half. St. John's led 24-21 at halftime.
The Red Storm went on a 10-0 run early in the second half. Sampson scored to put the Red Storm ahead 30-24 with 16:56 left. Two straight 3-pointers by Wright got the Bearcats within two points with fewer than three minutes left.
NOTES: Wright now needs one assist to move past Bearcats legend Oscar Robertson into fourth place in school history ... Red Storm guard D'Angelo Harrison has scored 20 points or more in 10 of the first 14 games ... St. John's now leads the all-time series 9-7, including 4-2 in Cincinnati ... Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin remained tied for third place on the school's all-time list with 127 coaching victories.
