1.16 Around The Big East

Both of the two Big East games from Tuesday night had interesting things happen in them. One of them was the result of the game and the other was a byproduct of playing the game.

St. John's 67, #20/20 Notre Dame 65 - JaKarr Sampson scored 17 for the Red Storm as they picked up their fifth straight win over the Irish in Madison Square Garden. What was odd about this game was that Mike Brey took preseason All-Big East player Jack Cooley out of the game at the 9:36 mark of the second half as St. John's led 55-47 and didn't put him back in. At all. Foul trouble? Nope, Cooley committed his third foul less than five minutes in to the second half and didn't come out until Brey took him out for good, so your guess is as good as mine. As befitting a game with a score in the 60s, SJU won this game with defense, getting blocks on two of Notre Dame's final three possessions, including noted block machine Chris Obekpa putting one off Pat Connaughton's head before it went out of bounds.

RV/#24 Cincinnati 75, DePaul 70 - Cashmere Wright scored 20 points and left with an apparent knee injury at the 15:12 mark of the second half. The Bearcats were leading 54-41 at the time, so for those of you scoring at home, that means DePaul outscored Cincinnati 29-21 after Wright went out. That's, um, bad. The Blue Demons actually cut the lead to just three with eight seconds left on a Cleveland Melvin jumper, but Sean Kilpatrick made both free throws on the other end to secure the Bearcat win. News from Cincinnati says that Wright's knee injury is only a sprain, leaving him as day-to-day heading into UC's next game... against Marquette on Saturday.