St. John's women can't overcome poor start vs. ND

St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico was surprised at how tight her team came out against Notre Dame.

The Red Storm had already played No. 1 Baylor tough and compete in one of the best conferences in the country. Yet they were rattled for the first 20 minutes in a 71-56 loss to the second-ranked Fighting Irish on Saturday.

"I was shocked," Barnes Arico said. "I was like, `What's going on.' The first four minutes we were fine. Then we turned the ball over a few times and their confidence was shook. In large part it's due to Notre Dame. We were able to regroup though."

St. John's jumped out to a 6-1 lead before Notre Dame (21-1, 8-0 Big East) went on a 19-2 run to take an early 12-point lead. During one sequence, Notre Dame center Devereaux Peters stole the ball from point guard Nadirah McKenith and coasted in for an easy layup.

"She picked me," McKenith said. "That's never happened before by a post player. I was kinda embarrassed she stole the ball from me like that. We were nervous and I don't know why. The second half we talked about it, played like we know how and went out there and fought."

St. John's trailed by 20 at the half before cutting its deficit to 11, but the Red Storm could get no closer.

Despite Saturday's performance, the Red Storm have been playing well over the last month. They had won six of their previous seven games since getting everyone healthy, including victories over then-No. 7 Rutgers and then-No. 14 Louisville.

"I like where our team is right now," Barnes Arico said. "To come back here and not quit. We could have come out and it really could have gotten ugly. They showed that they are a really good basketball team."

Skylar Diggins scored 24 points, and Peters had 18 points, 15 rebounds, five blocks and four steals to lead the Irish to their 18th straight victory.

"They are a really talented team," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "They made us play ugly today."

Peters had six points and Diggins eight, including a pretty floater down the lane that made it 20-8 with 11:16 left in the half.

St. John's scored the next eight points, including two 3-pointers by Tesia Harris, to cut it to a four-point game. That's as close as the Red Storm (13-8, 5-3) would get as Notre Dame put it away with a 14-0 spurt.

"I thought we played pretty well in the first half," McGraw said. "I thought we were playing their pace, it lulled us. When we started rebounding and running we looked like ourselves."

Notre Dame dominated the glass, outrebounding St. John's 49-29 _ including a whopping 26-8 advantage in the first half.