NCAA West: St. John's slips by N. Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. -- St. John's barely avoided the biggest upset on the opening day of the NCAA tournament. <br><br>Lavor Postell converted a three-point play with 10.9 seconds to play and Erick Barkley

Thursday, March 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TUCSON, Ariz. -- St. John's barely avoided the biggest upset on the opening day of the NCAA tournament.

Lavor Postell converted a three-point play with 10.9 seconds to play and Erick Barkley made a key steal with three seconds left to seal second-seeded St. John's 61-56 win over Northern Arizona on Thursday night.

Backed by a spirited crowd, 15th-seeded Northern Arizona once again came close to pulling off a tournament upset. The Lumberjacks (20-11), who lost 65-62 to Cincinnati in the 1998 tournament, took their first lead of the second half on Cory Schwab's 3-pointer with 29.1 seconds to play that made it 56-55. But St. John's wasn't flustered.

Postell hit a leaner in the lane and drew the foul. He hit the free throw to put the Red Storm up two. The Lumberjacks called timeout and got the ball into the front court before Barkley stole the ball from Dan Land.

Barkley hit one free throw with 2.6 seconds left and Bootsy Thornton rebounded the miss on the second shot and scored to ice the game. The Red Storm (25-7) advanced to play No. 10 seed Gonzaga, which beat Louisville 77-66 earlier Thursday night. In the other two games in Tucson, No. 6 Purdue beat No. 11 Dayton 62-61 and third-seeded Oklahoma beat No. 14 Winthrop 74-50.