JAMAICA, N.Y. - The visiting team couldn't beat VMI. The home team couldn't defeat Niagra, St. Francis (N.Y.) or Illinois State.

This wasn't exactly a clash of college basketball giants. But Virginia Tech couldn't win this game, either. The Hokies, coming off last weekend's shocking loss at VMI, fell to former Big East rival St. John's 75-65 on Wednesday at Carnesecca Arena. Alumni Hall was renamed last month in honor of former St. John's coaching great Lou Carnesecca.

As was the case at VMI, the Hokies (4-2) trailed the entire second half.

"We've got to focus more," said Tech guard Jamon Gordon, who had 10 points, seven rebounds and six steals. "We're making a lot of mental mistakes."

Like Tech, St. John's (3-3) has a young team. The Red Storm, coming off a six-win season, was picked last in the Big East coaches' preseason poll.

A daunting ACC season looms for Tech, beginning with a Dec.19 visit from North Carolina.

"We're just making too many mental mistakes, whether it's not knowing what defense we're in, whether it's not reading the defense and attacking it," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "They went zone and we got very, very passive."

Tech was outrebounded 48-31. The Hokies have yet to outrebound a foe this season.

"We've got to establish someone in the low post who can score and we've got to rebound," Greenberg said. "We've got to be more persistent [rebounding] and we've got to be a little bit tougher. We've got to pursue the ball a little harder."

"It's more in your heart - you've got to want to rebound," Gordon said. "Until we get that, we're going to always get outrebounded."

St. John's center Lamont Hamilton, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, had 24 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.

"We really attacked the glass," said Red Storm first-year coach Norm Roberts, a former Kansas assistant. "Lamont played like a man."

"Today I was more aggressive down low, making sure I was posting up big," Hamilton said.

The Hokies shot just 37.1 percent from the field, including 31.3 percent in the second half. Six of Tech's seven 3-pointers came in the first half. It was the third straight game Tech shot worse than 40 percent from the field.

"We missed some easy shots in the second half," said guard Carlos Dixon, who had 22 points, seven rebounds and four 3-pointers.

"We have a problem running sets," Gordon said. "It seems like we score more out of fast breaks. We've got to work on scoring out of our sets."

St. John's guard Daryll Hill had 18 points. Zabian Dowdell chipped in 14 points for Tech.

Tech went on a 15-1 run that included four 3-pointers to build a 23-12 lead with 11:41 left in the first half. The Red Storm closed the half on a 13-3 run to take a 40-35 lead.

Tech scored seven straight points to whittle the deficit to 54-50 with 9:50 left but came no closer.

With Tech down 65-60, Dowdell turned the ball over on an errant pass with 3:23 to go. The Red Storm made three straight baskets to extend the lead to 71-60 with 1:43 left.

Greenberg wanted to "shake things up," so he started freshman Robert Krabbendam in place of Coleman Collins. Collins had 10 points off the bench.

Deron Washington had only two points in 17 minutes because of foul trouble.

Greenberg played Markus Sailes for two minutes in the first half to give his team a dose of experience. Tech had announced after the first game that Sailes would miss the rest of the season with a stress fracture in his right leg. Sailes will still have his operation; Greenberg doesn't expect to play him again.

VIRGINIATECH(4-2) Washington 1-5 0-0 2, Dixon 9-17 0-0 22, Krabbendam 1-3 0-0 2, Dowdell 5-7 3-3 14, Gordon 3-9 3-5 10, Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Cooke 2-8 0-0 5, Calloway 0-2 0-0 0, Sailes 0-0 0-0 0, Collins 2-11 6-7 10. Totals 23-62 12-15 65.

ST.JOHN'S(3-3) Epperson 4-11 0-0 9, Gray 3-6 0-0 6, Hamilton 9-13 6-10 24, Hill 4-14 10-11 28, Jackson 3-6 1-2 8, Jones 2-2 0-0 4, Lawrence 1-3 0-2 3, Missere 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 1-1 1-2 3, Diakite 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 27-56 18-29 75.

Halftime-St. John's 40-35. 3-point goals-Virginia Tech 7-15 (Dixon 4-6, Dowdell 1-1, Cooke 1-3, Gordon 1-4, Krabbendam 0-1), St. John's 3-10 (Jackson 1-2, Epperson 1-3, Lawrence 1-3, Hill 0-2). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Virginia Tech 31 (Dixon, Gordon 7), St. John's 48 (Hamilton 11). Assists-Virginia Tech 13 (Gordon 6), St. John's 10 (Lawrence 5). Total fouls-Virginia Tech 21, St. John's 17. A-3,419.