Recap | Box score

NEW YORK -- A quick take on St. John's dramatic 58-56 win over Rutgers on Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

WHAT IT MEANS: St. John's improves to 13-8 on the season, and moves back to .500 in Big East play at 5-5. The Red Storm avoid the dreaded "trap game" scenario, with this game sandwiched in between national TV matchups versus Duke and UCLA.

Rutgers falls to 12-10 overall, and 3-7 in Big East play. The disappointing thing for Mike Rice's bunch is, this is a game they clearly could have won, if they had taken better care of the basketball. St. John's was not at its best -- far from it, in fact. Rutgers squandered a golden opportunity to pick up a Big East road win against a metropolitan-area rival.

"We were very fortunate, St. John’s was very fortunate, to win tonight," St. John's coach Steve Lavin said. "I thought Rutgers outplayed us in many facets of the game, but we had just enough to get over the top and find a way to get a W."

THE SKINNY: In one of the strangest first halves you'll ever see, Rutgers committed 15 turnovers in 20 minutes, yet was tied with St. John's at the half, 31 all. The Red Storm jumped out to a 16-5 lead early, but then went ice-cold from the field (and the foul line), allowing the Scarlet Knights back in the game.

In the second half, St. John's again opened the lead back out to 10 with 6:52 to play -- but Rutgers never quit. Behind Jonathan Mitchell (21 points, 4-for-5 on 3-pointers) and Robert Lumpkins (13 points, 3-for-4 on 3-pointers), the Scarlet Knights clawed their way back. A Lumpkins trey with 18 seconds remaining tied the game up at 56, but Justin Brownlee drove in the lane and scored a lay-up with four seconds remaining, and a desperation 3-point attempt by Dane Miller missed at the buzzer.

SLOPPY, SCARLET: Rutgers came into this game ranked No. 35 in the country in fewest turnovers per game (11.8). But, as mentioned above, the Scarlet Knights had 15 giveaways in the first half alone, and 23 overall. The St. John's press definitely was effective at times, but Rutgers was also very careless with the ball. And it cost them dearly.

"They were really good with forcing us to play at their tempo," Rice said of St. John's. "Their pressure was good, [it] has been good in certain areas in films that we watched. But tonight -- it's just, some of those have to be on us. Some of those things just have to be the same mistakes we're making.

"If we don't get in our own way, we have a chance to have a Big East victory on the road."

"We're fortunate, because the numbers -- other than forcing them into 23 turnovers and getting 21 points off those turnovers -- if we didn't have that, there's no way we win tonight," Lavin said. "Because every other statistical category, they dominated."

WINNING UGLY: St. John's will take the victory, of course -- but this was one of the ugliest games you'll ever see. After a hot 7-for-8 start from the field, St. John's shooting went in the tank. They finished the game shooting just 36.7 pecent from the field. Give some credit to Rutgers' defense though, which came in ranked No. 24 in the country in field-goal percentage D.

Rutgers' defense had nothing to do with St. John's going just 20-for-31 (64.5 percent) from the free throw line, however.

What's more upsetting for St. John's is the lack of assists. On Sunday, St. John's recorded assists on 21 of their 32 field goals. Against Rutgers, St. John's had just six assists, on 18 field goals.

"Even though as a coach, you do everything you can to fight a letdown, we clearly did not duplicate or replicate the level of energy or offensive execution that we had against Duke," Lavin said. "Now, Rutgers had a lot to do with that. So you start by praising Mike Rice for having his kids play at a really high level."

Dwight Hardy led the Red Storm with 15 points, while Paris Horne and Justin Burrell had 12 apiece. Brownlee had nine, including the winning bucket.

SPEAKING OF WHICH ... After Lumpkins drained his third triple (all coming in the final 89 seconds of the game), St. John's inbounded the ball immediately and pushed it forward, only to have it deflected out of bounds with 6.4 seconds left. Lavin called a timeout, and drew up a play from scratch for the final shot.

He wanted the ball in Brownlee's hands -- even though Brownlee was playing with his left thumb in a fiberglass splint and heavily wrapped after suffering a hairline fracture against Duke, and even though Brownlee had taken just five shots and scored just seven points up until that point in the game.

With so little time left on the clock, Lavin wanted to make sure he got the ball in a playmaker's hands. And he knew that Rutgers was going to switch on any screens St. John's set. "It's a play concept-wise that makes sense against teams that are gonna switch," Lavin said. "If you get Brownlee a catch at the heart of any team's defense, you like your chances. He can shoot it, can drive it, or he can pass it. He's one of those skilled big men."

Brownlee set a screen for D.J. Kennedy on the block ... the defenders indeed switched ... and Brownlee was able to pop to the top of the key and receive the pass. From there, it was up to him what to do.

"I saw the left side was open, so I just drove it without even thinking about if my hand was hurtin' or nothing," Brownlee said. "I was just trying to get the basket."

He got to the rim, and put it off the glass and in for the game-winning points.

Brownlee said the thumb did not bother him too much in his first game playing with the injury. "It feels good," Brownlee said. "I don't feel too much pain."

Especially after a game-winner like that.

WHAT'S NEXT: St. John's will fly cross-country on Thursday afternoon, and play their final nonconference game of the regular season on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion versus UCLA.

Rutgers will play at No. 8 Notre Dame on Sunday.

"It was an interesting thing -- how proud I was for one end of the game, the defensive end. And how angry and disappointed and frustrated I am [at] the other end of the floor, the offensive game," Rice said. "For [my players] not to allow themselves to become frustrated and generally quit after being so pathetic on offense -- again, I told them I like their fight, I liked it. But eventually they’re gonna have to stop getting in their own way and allow themselves to be successful."