Villanova, PA -- St. John's closed the regular season with a 77-62 loss to Villanova this afternoon at The Pavilion to finish the season at 19-10 overall, 9-7 in the BIG EAST. The Wildcats (16-11, 7-9 BIG EAST) were led by Ricky Wright's 19 points to pace the win. SJU's Anthony Glover had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Red Storm in defeat.

St. John's now begins its second season in the ConAgra Foods BIG EAST Men's Basketball Tournament Championship on Wednesday, March 6 at 9:00 p.m. versus cross-town rival Seton Hall (12-17, 5-11 BIG EAST).

The Red Storm could have earned a first round bye with a victory at Villanova this afternoon but the Wildcats strong defense on SJU star Marcus Hatten (13 points) led the way to victory.

Villanova took a 32-28 advantage into halftime on Senior Day before a sold out crowd of 6,500 at The Pavilion led by Wright's 11 points to lead all scorers in the first half.

SJU battled back to tie at 44-44 with 13:45 to play on two free-throws by Glover, but a three pointer by Gary Buchanan gave the Wildcats a 47-44 lead they would never relinquish.

A valiant comeback would fall short as SJU would close the gap to five on two occasions, the last at 56-51 with 7:18 to play on a fast break dunk by Hatten. That would be as close as the Red Storm would come the rest of the way.

Other contributors were starting center Donald Emanuel who finished with nine points along with Andre Stanley and Kyle Cuffe each turning in solid performances with six points and three rebounds respectively in a losing effort.

Hatten had a sub-par 5 of 14 shooting day from the field and was 0 for 4 from three-point range, but the 6-1 junior guard still managed to close out a magnificent regular season campaign as the leading scorer in the BIG EAST Conference. His 22.3 point per game mark topped all scorers as he became the first St. John's player to lead the league in scoring since Walter Berry won the honor in 1986.

St. John's goes for its 20th victory Wednesday night (March 6) in a rematch with Seton Hall at 9:00 p.m. The game is part of the first day of the ConAgra Foods BIG EAST Tournament Championship and will be broadcast live on ESPN nationally. In addition, the game will air on ESPN 1050AM radio. The rest of the BIG EAST Tournament draw is as follows:

March 6th:

Noon: Boston College vs. Rutgers (winner to play Pittsburgh on March 7)

2:00 pm: Georgetown vs. Providence (winner to play Miami on March 7)

7:00 pm: Syracuse vs. Villanova (winner to play UCONN on March 7)

9:00 pm: St. John's vs. Seton Hall (winner to play Notre Dame on March 7).