The Big East started off 5-0 in basketball on Saturday in the early games. The Cincinnati Bearcats, No. 17 Georgetown Hoyas, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, St. John's Red Storm and West Virginia Mountaineers all won today.
Cincinnati 101, Radford 70: The Bearcats again were missing suspended players and again it didn't matter. Cincinnati's Cashmere Wright led all scorers with a career-high 25 points to go with 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Sean Kilpatrick, Dion Dixon and Jermaine Sanders also reached double figures in scoring for the Bearcats. The Bearcats had a 12-0 run to start the game and never looked back. The three-pointer was falling all game for the Bearcats. They finished 10-21 from behind the arc and 60.3% from the floor overall.
No. 17 Georgetown 81, American 55: The Hoyas rolled in this game and shot nearly 59% from the field. Markel Starks led Georgetown with 18 points but it was Henry Sims that had arguably the most impressive performance. The Hoyas center had 17 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks. Sims scored or assisted on 14 of the first 16 Georgetown points in the second half. The win was the eighth in a row in this series which Georgetown leads 44-8.
Rutgers 67, Stony Brook 58: Rutgers is back over .500 on the season (6-5) with the win. Myles Mack was not inserted into the Scarlet Knights' starting lineup for the first time this season but he didn't disappoint with a career-high 22 points. Gilvydas Biruta and Eli Carter also reached double figures in scoring for Rutgers. A 11-0 run got Rutgers off to a 27-14 lead with 3 minutes to play in the first half. The Seawolves made a late run to cut the lead to 31-26 at the break. After Stony Brook cut the deficit to three in the second half, Rutgers used a 7-0 to put the game out of reach. (Story corrected, omission of a word made it appear that Mack had never started before. He started the first ten games).
St. John's 56, Fordham 50: St. John's is back to .500 (5-5) on the season after the close win over Fordham. To say that the Red Storm have a personnel shortage this season would be putting it too mildly. St. John's used just six players in this game. An 18-0 run that carried over from the first half seemingly had put the game away but the Rams fought back and cut the lead to three with 1:56 left to play. Clutch free throw shooting at the end of the game helped St. John's break a three game losing streak. Maurice Harkless had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds for St. John's. God`sgift Achiuwa also had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
West Virginia 84, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64: West Virginia only held a four-point lead at halftime but used a big second half to put away Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday. West Virginia outscored the Islanders 30-17 through the first 10:05 of the second half to break it open. Kevin Jones led the Mountaineers in scoring with 22 points on 11-16 shooting. The tough defense of the Mountaineers forced the Islanders into 21 turnovers for the game. West Virginia also won the rebounding battle 33-25.
There are seven other Big East games on the schedule today: No. 4 Louisville-Memphis (TV: ESPN); No. 11 Marquette-Northern Colorado (ESPN3); Notre Dame-No. 20 Indiana (ESPN2); No. 1 Syracuse-NC State (ESPN2); No. 14 Pittsburgh-South Carolina St. (ESPN3); DePaul-Arkansas Pine Bluff; Villanova-Saint Joseph's.