No. 21 Georgetown 77, St. John’s 52
No type of threatening weather, be it thundersnow or Red Storm, was going to stop a Georgetown team positively itching to get back on the court after a weeklong layoff and keen to avenge an upset loss earlier in the month.
With the white stuff covering everything outside Verizon Center on Wednesday, the Hoyas smothered St. John’s inside the arena with defense and put their foot on the gas offensively in a 77-52 rout in front of a brave crowd of 7,160.
“I thought clearly Georgetown played with intelligence, aggressiveness and sustained their effort and level of execution for the 40 minutes, and thoroughly dominated us in every aspect of play,” said Red Storm head coach Steve Lavin.
After an eight-day break that allowed the Hoyas (15-5, 4-4 Big East) to recharge and refocus on defense, they won their third straight conference game, holding the Red Storm (11-8, 4-5) to 33.9 percent shooting from the field, the lowest of any opponent this season.
Meanwhile, Jason Clark was a perfect 5 for 5 from the field, with three 3-pointers to lead all players with 16 points while Hollis Thompson, coming off the bench for the first time this season, scored 15 points, hitting a pair of threes and missing only one of his six shots. Austin Freeman also added 14 points.
“It turned out okay,” said Hoyas head coach John Thompson III when asked about swapping Thompson out of the starting lineup for freshman forward Nate Lubick, who had four first-half turnovers but still managed six points and six rebounds. “I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter.”
Thompson, standing just behind his coach as he spoke, could barely contain a grin.
“I think when you get an opportunity to come off the bench, you see what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong, what we need to bring more of,” Thompson said. “So when I come into the game, I try to bring that to the team.”
Thompson’s first three-pointer midway through the first half kicked off a 14-4 run that put Georgetown in firm control.
St. John’s, which had sent the Hoyas to the first of three straight defeats, 61-58, at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 3, missed its final six shots over the final 5:01 of the first half while the Hoyas scored ten straight points, highlighted by Julian Vaughn (nine points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks) finding Thompson who was fouled as he threw down a monster slam and then converted the ensuing free throw.
Dwight Hardy (ten points) and Justin Brownlee (nine points) were held to just barely half of the 35 total points they scored in the teams’ first meeting, missing 18 of their 26 shots.
“We know we didn’t play well at St. John’s, offensively and defensively,” said Chris Wright (nine points, six assists). “We just were off, and we really wanted to come out here and beat them, beat them on the boards and beat them defensively, get a lot of stops and get out and run.”
Georgetown allowed St. John’s to open the second half with a 9-1 run before reasserting control again with a stretch that included five straight points from Thompson, and the Hoyas then ran away down the stretch, outscoring the Red Storm, 24-10.
Playing the seventh game of a brutal stretch of eight straight against ranked teams, St. John’s lost for the fifth time in six contests and its 32nd straight road game against a ranked opponent.
“Sometimes, even though a coach doesn’t even have to encourage it, kids have a lot of pride at this level, and they’re competitive,” said Lavin. “I’m sure Freeman, Clark, and Wright had a mindset that they wanted to get back at the Johnnies for the loss we gave them at the Garden.”
