Dane Miller grabbed a rebound and scored on a one-handed slam dunk with 11.2 seconds to play to give Rutgers a 61-58 victory over St. John's in the final game of the Big East Conference regular season on Saturday night.
The victory gave Rutgers (14-17, 6-12) the 11th seed in the conference tournament. The Scarlet Knights will play No. 14 seed Villanova in the first round Tuesday. St. John's (13-18, 6-12) will be the No. 12 seed and will face No. 13 Pittsburgh.
D'Angelo Harrison, who led St. John's with 17 points, had two attempts to tie the game. He missed a go-ahead 3-pointer with about 4 seconds to play.
Eli Carter was fouled after the rebound and made both ends of a 1-and-1 to push the lead to three points.
Harrison's halfcourt 3-pointer at the buzzer looked good all the way until it bounced off the rim.
Carter led Rutgers with 15 points, while Miller had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Mike Poole added 11 points and Myles Mack had 10.
Harrison scored 13 of his 17 points after picking up his fourth foul early in the second half. Amir Garrett had 14 points and nine rebounds and God'sgift Achiuwa had 12 points, including what was then a go-ahead rebound follow with 45.4 seconds to play.
Moe Harkless, who came into the game averaging 15.5 points, finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.
A dunk by Achiuwa had given St. John's a 56-52 lead with 2:40 to go but Miller scored on a tip-in and Mack hit a 3-pointer with 1:16 left to give the Scarlet Knights a 57-56 lead with 1:16 to play.
After Achiuwa scored to put the Red Storm ahead, St. John's played great defense on the other end and forced Carter to take an off-balance shot from the baseline with the shot clock running out. The shot hit off the rim and Miller came down the lane and grabbed the rebound and scored in one motion for the lead.
St. John's killed itself from the free throw line, hitting 10 of 22. Rutgers was 16 of 21.
The first half was ugly on both sides and appropriately ended tied at 25. Neither team led by more than five points in the game and both were woeful from the field.
St. John's shot 35.3 percent with Harkless and Harrison combining for 5 of 20 from the field. Garrett was the only bright spot, scoring 10 points and grabbing six rebounds. The Red Storm made 1 of 7 free throws.
Carter had 11 points to lead Rutgers, which shot 30 percent from the field. The Scarlet Knights stayed close, hitting 10 of 12 from the line.
