Washington D.C.- The St. Johns University mens basketball team lost its first round game to Wisconsin 80-70 on Friday night at the MCI Center. The loss eliminates the Red Storm from the tournament and gives them an overall record of 20-12 for the season.

The Red Storm were lead by first team all BIG EAST team member Marcus Hatten (Baltimore, Md.) who had 28 points and six rebounds. Senior Anthony Glover (Bronx, N.Y.) added 17 points and five rebounds for the Red Storm. Senior Donald Emanuel (Houston, Texas) added 13 points, three rebounds and three assists. Eric King (Brooklyn, N.Y.) contributed eight points and four rebounds for the Red Storm.

Wisconsin held the lead for most of the first half and took a seven-point lead into the locker room at half time. St. Johns was able to cut the lead to two points when Eric King hit two free throws to cap an 11-2 run and make the score 48-46 in favor of the Badgers with 12:30 left in the game. Wisconsin responded by going a 10-2 run to take a 58-48 lead with 8:39 to play in the game.

St. Johns got within five points with 2:57 to play when Marcus Hatten hit a three-point field goal. However, Wisconsin was able to seal the game at the free throw line down the stretch.

The Red Storm finished the game shooting 24-56 for 42.9% from the field and 15-19 from the foul line. The Red storm out rebounded Wisconsin 30-25 but Wisconsin was able to protect the ball and the Red Storm were able to force only nine turnovers, well below there season average of 19.9.

Hatten, who lead the Big East in scoring in conference play gave credit to the Wisconsin defense and they way they defended him in the second half. They didnt try to block my shot they just tried to blur my vision with a hand in my face, he said. They did a pretty good job of that.

Coach Jarvis had nothing but praise for Hatten. On a bad night, Marcus is better than most people. Jarvis said. In the second half it wasnt anything Wisconsin did. That was a person carrying 500 pounds of weight on his back for six months dealing with that and the death of his grandmother.