Feb. 2, 2008

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QUEENS, N.Y. - Trailing at the half, the St. John's women's basketball team made the necessary adjustments to its game to outscore Marquette 42-28 in the final half and pick up a key BIG EAST victory, 77-67, on Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena.

Monique McLean posted her second-straight 20-point scoring contest with a game-high 24 against the Golden Eagles. The junior, who was 6-for-10 from the floor and 8-for-8 at the line, also reached the 900-career point plateau with her performance as her current total sits at 919. Kia Wright had another big game for the Red Storm with 21 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field and a 7-for-9 effort at the charity stripe. In addition, Wright tied Recee Mitchell for the team high with six rebounds, five of which came in the second half.

The game was close from the start as the score was tied five times and the lead changed hands four times in the first half. Despite out-shooting Marquette 52.0 to 38.9 in the opening frame, the Red Storm found itself trailing at the half, 39-35. Marquette (12-9, 4-4 BIG EAST) was beating St. John's on the boards 22 to 13, which led to 23 second-chance points for the Golden Eagles and the lead.

The Red Storm (12-9, 3-5 BIG EAST) made the necessary adjustments at the break and chipped into the Marquette lead. The score was tied on six occasions before the Red Storm jumped out in front for the remainder of the way, 65-63, at 4:55 on a Joy McCorvey layup. For the next three minutes Marquette only had one field goal attempt because the Red Storm limited their opportunities, collecting five rebounds to MU's one.

In the second half, St. John's out-rebounded Marquette 23 to 21 and only allowed the Golden Eagles seven second-chance points. The Red Storm also took advantage of its opponent's mistakes and scored 15 points off of turnovers. Krystal Ellis, Marquette's leading scorer coming into the game with an average of 20.1, was limited to 10 points.

The win was the first ever for the Red Storm over Marquette in five tries and also marked head coach Kim Barnes Arico's 80th career victory at St. John's.

On Wednesday, the Red Storm will continue BIG EAST play when it travels to face Georgetown at 7:30 p.m.