Nichols Leads Syracuse Over St. John's

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse was desperate for a win, and Demetris Nichols delivered.

Nichols had a career-high 37 points — 26 in the second half — and matched his career best with 10 rebounds, leading the Orange past St. John's 76–74 yesterday.

Syracuse (17–8, 6–5 Big East), which had lost four of its last five to fall into the middle of the Big East standings, avenged a 64–60 loss to St. John's (14–11, 5–7) three weeks ago. With only five games left in the regular season, a win was paramount for the Orange's postseason hopes. That it came against the team that sent Syracuse on its recent tailspin was gratifying.

"This one was really, really big for us," Nichols, who also had a career-high seven 3-pointers and was 14–for–24 from the field, said. "They beat us a couple of weeks ago and we shouldn't have lost that game. We were on a losing streak, so we knew we had to step it up."

St. John's held a 34–31 halftime lead, and after Terrence Roberts was called for goaltending on the first possession of the second half, Nichols, the leading scorer in the Big East, went on one of his amazing scoring sprees. He hit three 3-pointers and netted 19 points in just over eight minutes, his fadeaway jumper along the baseline over Eugene Lawrence putting the Orange up 53–50 at 11:39.

"Nichols was absolutely unbelievable," said coach Norm Roberts, in his third season at St. John's, which remains in good position to qualify for the Big East tournament for the first time since 2003. "Nichols got in a zone, and the way he shot it, it didn't matter who was guarding him."

Early in the season, Nichols outscored Colgate 24–22 in the second half despite sitting the last seven minutes of the game, and he also had 15 straight in a win over Villanova last month.

Undeterred by Nichols's heroics, Lamont Hamilton and Lawrence hit consecutive 3s to give St. John's a 63–62 lead with 5:02 remaining. But Darryl Watkins converted two free throws and Nichols made two more foul shots before hitting his final 3 of the game, putting Syracuse ahead for good, 69–63, with 3:32 left.

"We found him, and he had as good a shooting game as I've seen in here under good defensive pressure," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said.