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Men's Basketball
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TBA
Providence College Athletics
Sunday, February 29
New York, N.Y. (at MSG)
Noon
Providence College
103
at
78
St John's
Providence Pounds St. John's, 103-78
2/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb 29, 2004
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Providence and St. John's had a Sunday that reflected their seasons.
The 13th-ranked Friars set a Big East record for points in a first half in a 103-78 victory that clinched a first-round bye in the conference tournament, matched their record for league wins and moved them into a three-way for first place.
St. John's lost another player from its already depleted roster and was eliminated from playing in the Big East tournament, which is held at Madison Square Garden, the Red Storm's home court.
"Our guys continue to impress me with everything they do. The maturity level is outstanding," Providence coach Tim Welsh said. "They're feeling it now. They're feeling good about themselves and they realize great things could lie ahead."
St. John's is playing out the string of a season of player punishments that has the Red Storm down to four scholarship players and eight total. The latest player to be disciplined is senior captain Andre Stanley, a graduate student who was suspended this weekend for academic reasons.
St. John's coach Kevin Clark said Stanley's status "will be decided this week."
Senior forward Kyle Cuffe of the Red Storm (6-19, 1-13) said his attitude was "that so much has already happened to this team, let's just get ready to go. It's already been a hard year. This is just more stuff we have to get past."
Ryan Gomes had 19 points and 11 rebounds, his 12th double-double of the season, for the Friars (20-5, 11-3), who shot 59.5 percent from the field (22-for-37) in taking a 62-38 halftime lead.
The previous conference record for points in a first half was set by Providence when it scored 61 against Georgetown on Feb. 10, 2001.
The Friars were three points off the school record for points in a half. They scored 65 in the second half against Pittsburgh on Feb. 10, 1990.
 Ryan Gomes totals 19 points, 11 boards.  | |
The win was the sixth straight and 12th in 14 games for Providence, which moved into the three-way tie with No. 3 Pittsburgh, which lost to Syracuse on Sunday, and No. 8 Connecticut.
"It was a difficult game knowing the struggles they've been through," said Providence's Sheiku Kabba, who had 11 points. "We played hard through parts of the game, a game you have expected us to play hard through the whole game."
Gomes said it will be hard to think of Tuesday's matchup at home against Pittsburgh as just another game.
"It's for first place in the Big East and the conference title," he said. "It's us being where we wanted to be and we've working hard since October to get to this point."
Daryll Hill had 24 points and nine assists for St. John's.
The Red Storm are 1-5 since five players were punished for breaking curfew to visit a Pittsburgh-area strip club, and 4-15 under Clark, who was appointed interim coach when Mike Jarvis was fired in December.
Gomes had 13 points and eight rebounds in Providence's big first half. Rob Sanders, Donnie McGrath and Chris Anrin were all 2-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half as the Friars went 9-for-17 against St. John's zone defense.
A 3 by Anrin capped an 8-0 run that gave the Friars their biggest lead of the half, 62-35 with 1:02 left. Providence came into the game averaging 71.6 points.
Herbert Hill made two free throws with 1:45 left to give the Friars a 101-72 lead. The last time St. John's gave up 100 points was in a 105-80 loss at Indiana on Dec. 23, 1992.
Sanders had 15 points for the Friars, while Marcus Douthit had 13 and McGrath had 11.
The Friars were 11-5 in the Big East in 2000-01, the last time the Friars were in the NCAA tournament.
"When we come back in a week-and-a-half, I think we are going to be ready to play well here," Welsh said of the conference tournament. "We have won three of our last four games here so we are starting to think we can play here."
Cuffe had 19 points and 10 rebounds for St. John's, while 7-foot-3 Curtis Johnson had a career-high 14 points.
Players Mentioned
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