QUEENS, NEW YORK – There is an old saying that "Truth is stranger than fiction," and that was no more evident than on Friday night when the University of the Incarnate Word men's basketball team ran St. John's University off their own court with a 73-51 win at Carnesecca Arena.

Heading into the game the two teams were heading in opposite directions with St. John's (7-4) coming off a nice win against Syracuse while owning a perfect 6-0 mark at home.  The Cardinals (4-5) were coming off a home loss to Our Lady of the Lake, an NAIA school, on Tuesday and had yet to register a win against a Division I opponent.

The Cardinals are quickly becoming giant slayers in the DI ranks with wins over Nebraska and Princeton last year and now St. John's.  UIW drained 11 three-pointers in the game, including five from power forward Derail Green (Houston/Klein Forest HS) who was a mismatch all game long for the Red Storm.

UIW led for the majority of the game and took the lead for good on a jumper by Jontrell Walker (Aurora, IL/West Aurora HS) with 3:54 left in the first half.  Walker's jumper started an 11-0 run that included three-pointers by both Walker and Green.  They would go into the half with a 35-26 lead.  In the second half, the Cardinals never let St. John's get closer than seven points and they led by as many as 22 before settling on the 18-point victory.

The Cardinals shot 40.4 percent from the field, made 11-of-25 from three-point range and were 14-of-15 at the charity stripe.  Green led the way with a career high 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and a 5-of-6 performance from three-point range.  Walker tallied 20 points and four assists while making all eight of his free throws to improve to 41-of-42 for the season, tops in the nation.  He has now made 39 consecutive free throws.  Kyle Hittle (New Braunfels/New Braunfels HS) had a tough game shooting, just 2-of-11, but he led the team with a season high 10 rebounds.  Mitchell Badillo (Houston/Cy Falls HS) chipped in with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.  The team only committed eight turnovers while forcing 15 and they out-rebounded the much taller Red Storm.

St. John's shot 43.5 percent from the field, made 6-of-15 from three-point range and were 7-of-13 at the foul line.  Durand Johnson led the team with 17 points and seven rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor.  Yankuba Sima added 11 points, five rebounds and four blocks.

The Cardinals will remain in New York over the weekend and will play LIU-Brooklyn on Tuesday night at the Barclays Center at 6 p.m.  The game will not be on television, but will be shown on NEC Front Row online at http://necfrontrow.com/webcast.php/LIU-3103/.
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