Dillon, Murphy slam dunk No. 23 Saint John's
By BRIAN KESSLER
Sports Editor
First-year head coach Matt Doherty made some key calls in Notre Dame's 73-60 victory over No. 23 St. John's on Saturday. He also made a big call after the game.
As the clock expired, Doherty headed to center court with his team and waved the students onto the floor to celebrate Notre Dame's first big home victory of the season.
"I felt a little corny waving them out," Doherty said. "I saw [North] Carolina beat Maryland and their students stormed the court, so I wanted ours to storm the court when we beat St. John's because they were a large part of this win. They are a big, big part of this program and we could not have won this game without them."
The Irish also couldn't have won the game without an All-American performance by sophomore forward Troy Murphy. The 6-foot-11 Murphy scored 30 points and grabbed 18 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes against a team without a player over 6-foot-8.
The unsung hero of the game, however, was Jimmy Dillon. The senior point guard scored nine points, dished out five assists and was responsible for the most important play of the game.
After the Irish had squandered an eight point lead with just over two minutes remaining, the 6-foot-2 Dillon stole the ball from Erick Barkley, dribbled down the court, drew the foul and slammed it home.
"Jimmy [Dillon] went a little show-time on us with the dunk," Doherty said. "That was a big steal. We were sitting back in a zone at their mercy a little bit. Jimmy's a gutsy kid. That's why he played the whole second half. He looked at me after that dunk because I told him if he dunked it, it better go through the hoop. I don't want any to come back through."
"Jimmy is a great guy with a tremendous heart," Murphy said. "He's got some nerve though. He's always telling me he's going to tune somebody up, but he's had many breakaways in practice and games and has always laid it up. He surprised me with a dunk. It was a big play and really got the crowd into it."
Dillon made the ensuing free throw and the three-point play keyed a 17-2 run that ended the game.
"Unfortunately for us, Notre Dame took advantage of the opportunities when they were presented, whereas we didn't," St. John's head coach Mike Jarvis said. "They deserved it. As much as we would have liked to win the game, I certainly would never take anything away from the opposition because all these kids played hard. Notre Dame made some big plays when they had to and they won another big game."
St. John's didn't stick to its game plan and launched an uncharacteristic 29 three-point field goals. The Red Storm made just seven of them.
"[It was] totally out of character," Jarvis said. "I've always felt that the three-point shot is fool's gold and tonight we went after the fool's gold. Our game is attacking the basket, regardless of what type of defense the opponent is playing. The three is not a shot that we're going to live by, because most of the time, just like tonight, we die by it."
The Irish out-rebounded the Red Storm 40-32 and shot 51 percent from the field. St. John's made just 35 percent of its shots and got five points from its bench.
Barkley and Bootsy Thornton scored a team-high 15 points in the loss for the Red Storm. Matt Carroll had 10 points for Notre Dame, while David Graves had eight points and five assists.
Notes:
* With the win, Notre Dame improves to 13-8 on the season and 4-3 in the conference. The Irish are now tied for fifth place in the Big East.
* The Irish still have their hopes set on a NCAA Tournament berth. "I don't think it is out of reach," Dillon said. "We've had many key wins and a couple of losses to some good teams. Right now each game is important and we are focused on winning the Big East."
* The victory marked the first time since the 1991-92 season that Notre Dame has beaten three ranked teams in one year.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, February 1, 2000
