Duke hangs on to defeat St. John's

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/28/2012 - Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mason Plumlee finished with 15 points and 17 rebounds, and No. 8 Duke held on for an 83-76 victory over St. John's on Saturday.

Ryan Kelly scored 16 points and grabbed nine boards for the Blue Devils (18-3), who controlled most of the game. They led by more than 20 and were still up by double digits with three minutes to play.

St. John's whittled the margin down to four late in the final minute, but a pair of free throws by Kelly helped Duke secure its second consecutive victory.

Moe Harkless poured in 30 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the Red Storm (9-12), who were coming off Wednesday's win against West Virginia. D'Angelo Harrison added 21 points in the loss.

St. John's faced a big deficit in the second half -- Seth Curry hit a three- pointer about 2 1/2 minutes in to give Duke a 52-30 advantage, and two foul shots by Kelly made it a 60-40 contest with under 14 minutes to go.

But the Red Storm scored 16 of the next 19 points to get back in the game. Harrison drained a pair of three-pointers during the run, which Phil Greene ended with a layup and long-distance make.

The rally had St. John's within 63-56 with 9:12 to go, but Austin Rivers stopped the visitors' momentum by sinking a layup on back-to-back possessions.

The shots helped Duke stabilize, and Plumlee made two free throws with 3:08 left on the clock to give the Blue Devils a 76-63 advantage.

But St. John's followed with another run. Harkless made buckets on three consecutive possessions and knocked down a trey inside the final minute. After Kelly made 1-of-2 from the line, Harrison rolled off a screen to hit a deep three and pull the Red Storm within 79-75.

However, there were only 20 seconds left to play. Kelly made two free throws at the other end, and St. John's didn't make another shot from the field.

Duke took control of the contest with a 20-3 run during the first half. Andre Dawkins made three shots from behind the arc to fuel the burst, which helped the Blue Devils go into halftime with a 45-29 advantage.

Game Notes

The Blue Devils shot only 41.5 percent, but made 32-of-42 free throws...St. John's made 44.1 percent of its shots...Duke holds a 15-6 series advantage with St. John's and is 6-1 all-time against the Red Storm at Cameron Indoor Stadium...Dawkins ended with 14 points, while Rivers had 12.

Wwwsportbet NCAA Basketball Betting News

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Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.

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Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.