Sunday, March 18, 2012

St. John's women win on coast-to-coast buzzer beater

St. John's fought off a second half charge by Creighton and beat the Bluejays on an amazing coast-to-coast basket by the Red Storm point guard Nadirah McKenith with only :01 left on the clock at the end of a nail biting NCAA Women's first-round matchup.

After Carli Tritz of Creighton tied the game at 67-67— by sinking two free throws with 5.4 seconds left—  McKenith took an in-bounds pass about 10-feet in, dribbled up the court zig-zagging through the Bluejays defense and tossing up a tear drop shot that went about six feet above the rim before swishing through the net.

McKenith tumbled to the floor as the St. John's bench erupted in cheers and Creighton players put their hands over their faces in disbelief.  A futile full court shot by Creighton (20-13) fell short as St. John's (23-9) almost became the first third-seeded team to fall to a 14th in the history of the women's tournament.


Red Storm head coach Kim Barnes-Arico must have had a lot of faith in her junior point guard.  She gave the green light for McKenith to single-handedly end the game on her own.  It's the kind of play that will be shown on highlight reels for a long time.

McKenith (an All-Big east second team point guard) finished the game with 21 points as a relieved St. John's moves on in the NCAA tournament.

One person who is probably really happy about the 69-67 St. John's win is President Obama.  He has the Red Storm in his Final Four bracket.

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