A 38-year-old woman claimed early yesterday that members of the St. John's University basketball team raped her in a Downtown Pittsburgh hotel.

	St. John's University via AP Although they were not charged by police, St. John's University sanctioned the team's two points leaders, among other players. Grady Reynolds, a senior, left, was expelled, and leading scorer Elijah Ingram, a sophomore, was permanently suspended from the university.. Click photo for larger image.

By nightfall, she was the one arrested and accused of filing false reports to police and trying to extort money from the players.

The arrest of Sherri Ann Urbanek-Bach, a laid-off flight attendant from Astoria, N.Y., capped a day that saw the university expel one player and suspend four others after the rape allegations became public.

Police declined to file charges against any of the players after questioning them and re-interviewing the woman. Police Cmdr. Maurita Bryant said last night the investigation was continuing, but no players would be charged with rape or sexual assault.

Instead, police charged Urbanek-Bach, who was in Pittsburgh to visit relatives, with making fictitious police reports, prostitution and attempted theft by extortion, all misdemeanors.

The investigation began after Urbanek-Bach reported to police at 4:15 a.m. that she had been raped at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, 100 Penn Ave. Downtown, Bryant said.

Police said she told them she went to the hotel with several members of the St. John's Red Storm basketball team, whom she did not know previously. She encountered them at Club Erotica, a McKees Rocks adult night club, hours after the team lost 71-51 to the University of Pittsburgh Wednesday night.

Police said the St. John's players arrived at the club in a taxi. They would not say how Urbanek-Bach and the players initially encountered each other, but they said she voluntarily accompanied the players when they returned to the Pittsburgh hotel in a cab.

She initially told city police she was assaulted between 2:30 and 3 a.m. in one of the players' rooms, which prompted an investigation made public during the afternoon by police. Questioning and evidence developed during the day, however, suggested the woman had willing sex with the players but threatened them with rape accusations if they did not pay her for it.

"We believe financial gain was a motive in this case," Lt. Kevin Kraus said. "Evidence suggests there were demands for money. When the demands were not met, she filed her report."

During the investigation, one of the players turned over to police his cellular telephone, which was equipped with a digital camera. Police recovered images from the camera that depicted portions of the hotel encounter.

"The photographic evidence, coupled with information from our investigation gave us ample evidence to support the charges," Kraus said.

Police initially said that they were investigating four St. John's players, but later said they had ruled out one player's involvement. After Urbanek-Bach alleged she was assaulted, she underwent medical evaluation, but police declined to reveal the results.

Her allegations prompted officials at the New York City university to begin their own investigation. St. John's said last night that it had expelled Grady Reynolds, a senior, and had suspended Elijah Ingram, a sophomore, Abraham Keita, a senior, Lamont Hamilton, a freshman, and Mohammed Diakite, a senior. A sixth player, Tyler Jones, a freshman, faces undetermined disciplinary action.

The players returned to New York yesterday with the team after meeting with detectives from the sex-assault unit.

In a statement, St. John's officials said that while police had filed no criminal charges against the players, they took action "for violation of team rules and behavior inconsistent with St. John's mission and values.'' The university is cooperating with police and may take further disciplinary action, based on the outcome of the police investigation, according to the statement.

The hotel, which is used by many out-of-town sports teams, is where another woman accused Florida Marlins catcher Ramon Castro of assaulting her in August. That case is set to go to trial this year.

Westin General Manager Joe Kane said the hotel's security log for Wednesday night and early Thursday showed nothing unusual, "just the usual door slamming [and] noise complaints.''

If a woman who appeared to be distressed or upset came into the lobby, Kane said he believed security would have noticed and inquired about it. But they noted nothing of the sort in their report, he said.

"Our security people would have been on it," Kane said. "We get people who get mugged out there and come in here and we call for help. We get people who slip on the ice and fall and come in here. We're like a beacon for people."

But hotel Director of Operations Peter Medure later confirmed that security officers did speak with police and fill out a report. He would not comment further.

Kane said Pitt does not arrange for its opponents to stay in the hotel, but said many teams choose it on their own. Teams that stay in the hotel are often subject to their organizations' internal rules, but hotel officials did not know what, if any, rules governed the St. John's players or if they were permitted to leave the hotel.

St. John's spokesman Jody Fisher said last night the players were under curfew but he declined to provide any further details.

For St. John's, the investigation and resulting player suspensions are the latest troubles for a team that's been plagued with them. The Big East team is still seeking its first conference win and has struggled under interim coach Kevin Clark since the firing of former head coach Mike Jarvis in December.

In November, senior guard Willie Shaw was arrested on marijuana possession charges and booted from the team. Junior-college transfer Reynolds was arrested just days before the 2002-03 season on charges he attacked a female student in a dormitory.