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St. John’s comes up short against Georgetown 69-66, now 0-5 in Big East (Highlights)

St. John’s remains winless in the Big East after a 69-66 loss to Georgetown in Patrick Ewing’s first visit to Madison Square Garden as a head coach.

  • Georgetown 69 (12-4, 2-3 Big East)
  • St. John’s 66 (10-7, 0-5)
  • Final, Box Score
  • Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

At times, the matchup between St. John’sand Georgetown was sloppy and filled with turnovers. But, the game ended up being a close battle until the end as two legendary Big East players, Chris Mullin and Patrick Ewing, faced one another as head coaches for the first time. But, it was Ewing’s Hoyas who got the upper hand tonight as Jessie Govan’s three-pointer with 27.4 seconds helped Georgetown win 69-66.

After two free throws by Jonathan Mulmore gave the Hoyas a three-point lead with ten seconds left, St. John’s had one chance to tie the game, but Shamorie Ponds’ attempt from downtown was short and that would be the only attempt the Red Storm would get.

For St. John’s, they now drop to 0-5 in the Big East, which has become a theme for the Red Storm in the short tenure that Mullin has had as head coach:

All night long, both teams were making their fair share of mistakes as the teams combined to turn the ball over 36 times and neither team shot 38 percent from the floor. The main stat advantage the Hoyas had was on the glass as they won the rebounding edge over the Red Storm, 49-34. 13 of those rebounds came from Govan, who finished with a game-high 18 points and this game-winning shot:

Despite Govan having the size advantage down low, the Red Storm did a good job of getting the double teams on him and they had their shot blocker down low in Tariq Owens. Owens finished with a career-high eight blocks and also had a pair of steals.

On the St. John’s side, Ponds was battling through a knee injury and still almost found a way to get the Red Storm the win. While he only made five of his 15 shots, he still had 17 points and six assists. However, 10 of those points came in the first half.

When St. John’s was down 57-49 with 4:34 left in the game, Ponds and Justin Simon attacked the basket more and it paid big dividends as the team went on an 8-0 run over a 1:26 stretch to tie the game. Simon ended up finishing the game with 16 points, four assists, and five steals.

As the theme has been in Big East play, when St. John’s isn’t hitting their three-point shots, their offense seems to slow down. As a team, they only made four of the 20 trifectas they attempted and three of those came from Bryan Trimble Jr., who had nine points off the bench and was on the floor late in the game.

In addition to the poor shooting percentage from downtown, St. John’s had trouble even making a shot at times. In the second half, the team went nearly seven minutes without a field goal and had just six points in the first eight minutes of the half. That stretch was crucial when you consider the two teams were tied at 31 at halftime.

 

In the loss, Marvin Clark II did have some foul trouble in the second half, but still had 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds. On the Georgetown side, forward Marcus Derrickson had 17 points and eight boards in the win.

While it wasn’t the most entertaining form of basketball at MSG tonight, the buzz was in the building as Ewing and Mullin had fans remembering the glory days of the rivalry between these two schools. However, the play on the court showed these two teams have a long way to go to get back to the top of the conference.

Georgetown found a way to finish a game on the road and got Ewing the win in the place that he called home as a Knick from 1985-2000. Meanwhile, for the Red Storm, they are still left looking for answers as they try to get that first win in the league. Also, the schedule doesn’t get any easier.

Next Game: St. John’s will look to pull the upset on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden when they host #1 Villanova (14-1, 2-1). You can watch the game at 8 p.m ET on the FOX Business Network.

 
I graduated from St. John's University with a degree in sports management. I previously wrote about the Johnnies at Rumble In the Garden.