FINAL: St. John’s 74, USF 58

Posted Feb 20, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Feb 20, 2010 at 03:10 PM

St. John’s rolled out of bed ready to play in Saturday’s noon start, knocking off host USF 74-58 at the Sun Dome.

The loss is a costly one for the Bulls, who were trying to climb back to .500 in the Big East after winning Tuesday against Cincinnati.

Instead, USF drops to 16-10 overall, 6-8 in the conference with four regular-season games remaining.

On Saturday, St. John’s (15-11, 5-9) was the more aggressive team and the more efficient one, shooting nearly 60 percent for the game in handing the Bulls their third loss in four games after a school-record four-game win streak in the Big East catapulted them into NCAA bubble talk.

The Bulls travel to Villanova on Wednesday in another key Big East game.

Dominique Jones and Mike Mercer each scored 17 points to lead the Bulls. However, Jones hit only six of 18 shots and went more than 15 minutes during one stretch of the game without scoring.