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Cincinnati Wastes Little Time Putting St. John's In Its Place

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sean Kilpatrick scored 10 of his 14 points in the opening 5 minutes of the second half and Cincinnati went on to a 76-54 victory over St. John's on Wednesday night.

The blowout win by the Bearcats (17-7, 7-4 Big East) ended a string of four straight games between the teams that ended with two-point margins, including St. John's 57-55 win at Cincinnati on Jan. 7.

Kilpatrick, the Bearcats' leading scorer with a 15.4 average, scored 10 straight points as part of a 12-3 run that gave Cincinnati a 44-27 lead with 15:26 to play. He had eight rebounds.

Yancy Gates had 14 points and nine rebounds and Cashmere Wright had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Bearcats, who finished with a 49-29 rebound advantage.

D'Angelo Harrison had 15 points to lead the Red Storm (10-14, 4-8), who have lost three of four and dropped to 2-7 this season at Madison Square Garden. They were coming off a 95-70 home loss to No. 2 Syracuse. Moe Harkless, who came into the game as the No. 2 freshman scorer (16.2) and rebounder (8.7) in the Big East, finished with a season-low six points on 2-of-8 shooting. His previous low was eight points against No. 1 Kentucky.

A 3-pointer by Harkless cut St. John's deficit to 32-24 1:19 into the second half. Cincinnati went on the 12-3 run and then extended the lead to as many as 27 points, the last time at 75-48 on a 3-pointer by Jeremiah Davis III with 1:13 to play.

Before the game St. John's announced that junior guard Malik Stith was leaving the basketball team for personal reasons but he will stay with the program in some capacity and will pursue his degree.

Stith's departure leaves St. John's with a six-man rotation, all first-year players in the program.

Cincinnati entered the game third in the conference in points allowed (60.4) and that number went down as the Bearcats held the Red Storm to 32.8 percent shooting (19 for 58) for the game.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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