St. John’s Honors, Gives Back
No. 20/25 St. John’s defeated RV/RV West Virginia 63-54 on Feb. 21. Prior to the game, St. John’s honored Kim Barnes Arico for becoming the school’s all-time winningest coach. She passed Joe Mullaney Jr. with 169 victories with a win over Rutgers on Feb. 12. St. John’s dedicated the game to Clare Droesch, a former member of the women’s basketball staff who is battling breast cancer. Droesch’s parents were at the game and the school presented them with a check at halftime to help defray some of her medical expenses after a year of fundraising.
Orange Upset
Syracuse defeated No. 21/18 DePaul 81-65 on Feb. 21 in a game televised on the CBS Sports Network. The victory marked the Orange’s first win against a team ranked in both major polls since 2010. SU defeated No. 6/6 Ohio State on Dec. 11, 2010. Sophomore Rachel Coffey set four career highs in the win. She finished with a career-best 22 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. Her six 3-point field goals were a career high, as well.
Huskies Bounce Back
Connecticut, which defeated Pittsburgh 86-37 on Feb. 21, hasn’t lost back-to-back games since losing to Providence and Louisville in March of 1993. The Huskies have gone 683 games without consecutive losses and are 48-0 following a loss in that time.
Notes on the Final Week of the Season
The final BIG EAST Player of the Week, Freshman of the Week and Honor Roll will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The final regular season games will be played on Monday, Feb. 27 with the bracket and seeds released after the final game that evening. The third and final set of coaches’ interviews will be available as audio clips here
. The All-Conference teams will be released on Thursday, March 1, with the BIG EAST Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year announced at a press conference on Friday, March 2 between the tournament’s first two sessions.
