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 of Jim Burr, Tim Higgins, and Earl Walton.
“The Big East Conference acknowledges that two separate officiating errors occurred at the conclusion of the St. John’s vs. Rutgers game,’’ he said, referring to the travel and stepping out of bounds. “Both missed violations should have caused the game clock to stop and a change of possession to occur prior to the end of the game. Neither error is reviewable or correctable under NCAA rules.’’
Trailing, 65-63, with 4.9 seconds left, Rutgers still had one chance but a long pass just inside midcourt was knocked away. Brownlee picked up the loose ball, appeared to take a couple of steps, then stepped out of bounds before throwing the ball into the stands with time still on the clock.
Dwight Hardy finished with 17 points and the Red Storm (21-10) improved to 8-1 on the Garden court this season.
UConn 79, Georgetown 62 — Kemba Walker scored 28 points in another stellar performance, and the No. 21 Huskies advanced with an easy second-round victory over the No. 22 Hoyas.
Now the Huskies (23-9), who had fallen all the way to the ninth seed in the conference tournament, get 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, W. Virginia 61 — Darius Johnson-Odom scored 11 points, including two big 3-pointers in the final minutes, and the Golden Eagles upset the No. 20 Mountaineers.
Marquette (20-13) was considered the last of the 11 Big East teams that could get a bid into the NCAA Tournament. It seems the wins over Providence and West Virginia have made that an almost certainty. Kevin Jones had 15 points for the Mountaineers (20-11).
Cincinnati 87, South Florida 61 — Yancy Gates was nearly perfect from the field, scoring a career-high 25 points and leading the 25th-ranked Bearcats (25-7) to the rout of the Bulls (10-23).
