Football
Associated Press 18y

Rutgers 82, St. John's 70

NEW YORK -- Rutgers gave Gary Waters at least one more game
to coach.

Quincy Douby scored 36 points, and the Scarlet Knights qualified
for the Big East tournament with an 82-70 victory over St. John's
on Sunday.

The Scarlet Knights (17-12, 7-9) will be the 10th seed in the
conference tournament. Waters resigned on March 1, effective at the
end of the season, his fifth at Rutgers. The end could come
Wednesday night in the opening round against seventh-seeded Seton
Hall.

"It was monumental, if you want to call it that," Waters said.
"We went through a lot the last week. It was something our kids
wanted. A lot of people are going to say they were playing for me.
They were playing for them and I want them to have success. When
this is over they won't see me as much any more. They had a chance
to clear their heads and play basketball. We're going to go out and
do our very best and with Douby shooting like that we could go real
far."

Douby, the conference's leading scorer at 24.7 points per game,
had 24 in the second half. He hit a 3-pointer and added a
three-point play to start an 11-1 run that gave Rutgers a 58-48
lead with 9:13 to go.

Douby finished 12-for-20 from the field, including 6-for-9 from
3-point range.

"We did a good job as a team of not focusing on that," Douby
said of the days following Waters' resignation. "We knew we had to
get this win to play in the Big East tournament and we could make a
run there and play in a postseason tournament."

Eugene Lawrence had 22 points for the Red Storm (12-15, 5-11),
who will miss the Big East tournament for the third straight year.

In 2004, St. John's kept itself out of the tournament played at
Madison Square Garden following the suspension of six players after
a curfew-breaking incident on a trip to Pittsburgh. Last year, the
school missed the tournament after placing itself on probation when
it admitted to NCAA violations regarding extra benefits to a
player.

"My guys tried hard. I told them in the locker room it does
hurt but that means we're playing games that mean something,"
second-year St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. "Until you get to
where you want to be at the top you have to go through some of
this. It should hurt and it does hurt."

It was the fifth time this season Douby scored at least 30
points and the third time in six games. His season best was 41 at
Syracuse.

"He's a great, great player," Roberts said of Douby. "All he
does is make unbelievable shots."

The last of Douby's 3s made it 73-61 with 3:01 left and it
started a 7-0 run that gave Rutgers its biggest lead, 77-61 with
1:06 to go.

Douby came within five points of the Carnesecca Arena record for
points by an opponent set by Ernie DiGregorio of Providence in
1973.

Marquis Webb added 12 points for Rutgers, while Jimmie Inglis
had 10.

Webb said Waters' resignation made this "definitely an awkward
situation. Whoever made the decision made the decision based on
what's good for the program, I guess."

Waters' record at Rutgers is 77-73 and the Scarlet Knights made
two NIT appearances under him

Lamont Hamilton had 14 points for the Red Storm.

"Everybody's down in there," Hamilton said of the locker room.
"We had a chance to win and do a big thing. We didn't get the job
done."

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