St. John's couldn't use the homecourt magic at the 2011 Big East Tournament to carry them this time. After advancing to the quarterfinals with the help of a series of questionable calls, the Red Storm's run ended with a 79-73 loss to No. 4 seed Syracuse in the quarterfinals. The game was tight late, but much-maligned Syracuse freshman Fab Melo made a couple nice plays to carry Syracuse to the win in the end.
Syracuse moves on to face Connecticut, who upset No. 1 seed Pittsburgh thanks to a buzzer beater by Kemba Walker (which you can see here!). St. John's drops to 21-11 and will await its NCAA Tournament seed.
Melo ended with 12 points, but he made his big plays count. His layup off a nice pass from Brandon Triche broke a 68-all tie with just under two minutes remaining and gave Syracuse the lead for good. He then put the game away with a second layup with 31 seconds left.
Triche led Syracuse with 22 points, while Dwight Hardy had 22 to lead St. John's.