Boston College tops St. John's

BOSTON (AP) — Boston College beat an old conference foe. Now it gets chance to play on its former league's biggest stage.

Joe Trapani scored seven of his 19 points during a game-breaking second-half run that led Boston College to an 82-70 quarterfinal win over St. John's on Tuesday night in the NIT Season Tip-Off.

Tyrese Rice paced the Eagles (3-0) with 28 points and nine assists. It was the first meeting between the schools since BC bolted the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005. Rakim Sanders added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles.

The Eagles will play No. 11 Purdue in the semifinals on Nov. 26 at Madison Square Garden in New York, site of the Big East postseason tournament.

"I think they're excited to be able to go down to Madison Square Garden," BC coach Al Skinner said. "We don't get to anymore because we're not in that league. They know it's a marquee building."

Rice, the ACC's second-leading scorer last season, is the only Eagle who's played in Madison Square Garden, coming in December of his freshman year in a loss to Michigan State.

On Tuesday, he was 8-for-12 from the field and 10-of-13 from the free throw line.

"It means a lot," he said. "I only played there once. I had a bad experience. I wanted to get back down there and take care of business."

Paris Horne and Sean Evans each scored 14 points for St. John's (2-1).

"There is no doubt he is an All-American," Red Storm coach Norm Roberts said of Rice. "That guy's really good. He's a special player."

Sanders' reverse layup pushed BC ahead for good, 58-57, with 7:41 to play. Trapani had an alley-oop slam and a 3-pointer in the 15-2 spree before his driving basket made it 71-59 with 3:15 left.

"It came down to rebounding that last seven minutes and we had some open looks, we did," Roberts said. "We had some good shots. We just didn't finish plays. Give them credit, they did."

Anthony Mason Jr., who paced St. John's with 24 points in an opening-round win over Cornell on Monday, was slowed by a sore foot and finished with 12 points on 3-of-13 shooting.