No. 11 Syracuse 79, No. 17 St. John's 73

Syracuse is back in the Big East tournament semifinals. The players who came up big for the Orange in the quarterfinals don't have any experience in those kind of games.

Sophomore guard Brandon Triche had a season-high 22 points and freshman center Fab Melo scored a career-high 12, including two layups in the final 2 minutes, and Syracuse beat St. John's Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

The fourth-seeded Orange (26-6) will meet ninth-seeded and 21st-ranked UConn (24-9) in the semifinals tonight. The Huskies beat top-seeded Pittsburgh 76-74 on Kemba Walker's buzzer-beating jumper Thursday.

The last time Syracuse and UConn met in the Big East tournament it was the Orange's epic 127-117, six-overtime win in the quarterfinals in 2009. Last season, it was one and done for the Orange, who are expected to be one of the Big East's 11 schools in the NCAA's field of 68.

"Any team, you look around the country, they're all good teams," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "Our league, we have the most this year, but they're all good teams."

Melo, a 7-foot native of Brazil who has been inconsistent in his rookie season, gave the Orange the lead for good at 70-68 with a layup off an inbounds pass with 2 minutes left.

He added another layup on a bounce pass from Triche that made it 74-70 with 32 seconds left.

Melo's layup with 2 minutes left came on a designed out-of-bounds play by Boeheim. The second late layup came on a nice bounce pass from Triche down low.

"I get on him a lot because he doesn't try using his body and he's really big, but he used his body," Triche said. "I passed it to his off hand and he was able to make the play."

Dwight Hardy had 22 points for the Red Storm (21-11), who advanced to the quarterfinals with a controversial second-round win over Rutgers.

No. 4 N. Dame 89, No. 25 Cincinnati 51

Ben Hansbrough led a brutally efficient Notre Dame attack with 23 points and the Fighting Irish dismantled one of the nation's best defenses in a quarterfinal rout of Cincinnati.

The league's player of the year had plenty of help.

Carleton Scott scored 18 points and Tim Abromaitis had 17 for the Irish (26-5), who have already won more games than in any other season under longtime coach Mike Brey.

Sporting its highest national ranking since December 1980, second-seeded Notre Dame rolls into the semifinals tonight against third-seeded Louisville or No. 11 seed Marquette having won five straight games and 12 of its last 13 overall.

Dion Dixon scored 15 points and Yancy Gates, coming off a career-best 25 in a second-round win over South Florida, managed 12 for Cincinnati. But the duo got very little help.

The Bearcats (25-8) shot just 32.8 percent from the field and were nearly as bad from the foul line, going 8 for 17. They went the final 7:25 without scoring.

NOTES

Refs in disputed ending withdraw

The three officials cited for two errors in the final seconds of the St. John's-Rutgers game have withdrawn from the rest of the Big East tournament.

Veteran refs Jim Burr, Tim Higgins and Earl Walton missed two calls - a travel and stepping out of bounds - in the final 1.7 seconds of St. John's 65-63 second-round victory Wednesday.

The Big East acknowledged after the game the officials blew the calls. On Thursday, Commissioner John Marinatto said the three officials have "voluntarily withdrawn" in "the best interests of those involved."

Marinatto called the league's officials a "very dedicated and loyal group of professionals." Last year, Burr worked the Big East semifinals and Higgins the championship game.