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NEW YORK (AP) -- Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser told his team at
halftime that it couldn't let Marcus Hatten take over the game.
He did and St. John's beat the 20th-ranked Demon Deacons 72-60
Saturday in Madison Square Garden.
Hatten scored 19 of his 26 points over the final 11½ minutes.
And if individuals received official credit for victories, this one
was all his.
"I'm really glad he's on my team," St. John's coach Mike
Jarvis said. "When I recruit a kid I ask myself would I want to
play against him. There is no way I would want to play against
Marcus Hatten."
Prosser joined that list, especially after his team failed to
follow instructions about stopping the junior college transfer who
leads the Red Storm in scoring at 16.6 points.
"He became our worst fear," Prosser said. "He took over the
game."
Wake Forest (8-3), which had overcome an 11-point first-half
deficit, was up 50-45 with 8:12 left on a rebound basket by Vytas
Danelius. Hatten then scored all but two of the points in a 9-2 run
that gave the Red Storm (8-2) a 54-52 lead with 6:05 yet.
Hatten was just getting warmed up.
The 6-foot-1 guard entered the game shooting 24 percent from
3-point range (13-for-55). He hit one from about 25 feet -- right in
front of the St. John's bench -- as the shot clock wound down to
make it 63-57 with 3:16 left.
"That was the dagger," Wake Forest's Craig Dawson said.
His fourth and final 3 came 1:13 later, and it was from the head
of the key with Ervin Murray in his face and made it 66-58.
On the next possession, Hatten forced a turnover that led to a
reverse layup by Sharif Fordham that made it 68-58 with 1:42 to
play.
"I was just playing my game, looking for my shot and getting
confident," Hatten said. "I got hot."
Jarvis smiled as he talked about the 3 from in front of the
bench.
"I felt at that time that anything he was putting up was going
in. He has incredible range," Jarvis said. "I thought that was
the shot that had Wake Forest saying `Uh, uh. We're not beating
them today."
Anthony Glover added 12 points for St. John's, which won its
fourth in a row, while Fordham had 10. Glover had nine rebounds and
Hatten grabbed eight.
Darius Songaila led the Demon Deacons, who had won their last
three games, with 17 points, while Josh Howard had 15. Both had 10
rebounds.
Wake Forest started the game shooting miserably, missing eight
of its first 10 shots. St. John's led by 11 points twice, the last
time at 21-10 on a hook shot by Kyle Cuffe with 6:49 left. Howard
then had half the points in a 14-0 run that gave the Demon Deacons
their first lead.
Hatten was only 2-for-7 in the first half, but one basket was a
long 3 with less than a second left that pulled St. John's to 30-28. He finished 9-for-19 from the field, including 4-for-10 on
3s.
"We had plenty of chances to keep the lead and even build on
it," Prosser said. "But Hatten's a big-time player. This is
disheartening. This is disappointing." | 
Wake Forest vs. St. John's