Washington, DC— St. John’s blended excellent three-point shooting, hitting 15 three-pointers, defeating Georgetown 95-83 on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.
Georgetown (9-5, 1-2 Big East) started the game with the first basket by Isaiah Abraham, then St. John’s answered with two three-pointers by Oziyah Sellers, and St. John’s (9-4, 1-2 Big East) brought the physicality to the Hoyas. Both teams went off to a hot start offensively. Georgetown’s depth was tested early in the game when Julius Halifonua got whistled for his third foul.
Georgetown started matching St. John’s physicality, and they began to gain momentum with two baskets by KJ Lewis, putting them up by five after the second media timeout. The frenetic play settled down towards the end of the first half, but Seal Diouf had a nice three-point play, and Jeremiah Williams.
Zuby Ejiofor’s strong interior play and Sellers’ hot shooting helped St. John’s stay within striking range. Georgetown kept pace with inside play with a three-point play from Caleb Williams. St. John’s started to forge ahead thanks to strong defensive play that forced turnovers, and a little help from the officiating crew, which drew a technical foul from Georgetown coach Ed Cooley towards the end of the first half, as St. John’s led 52-47 at halftime.
St. John’s held the advantage in the first half mainly because it went 8-for-16 from three-point range.
Joson Sonin made two three-pointers to start the second half for St. John’s as Ejiofor continued to exploit the undersized Hoyas in the paint with another three-point play as the Red Storm increased its lead to 11 by the first media timeout of the second half. St. John’s was dominating on the offensive glass and, in turn, continued to get second-chance points.
Dylan Darling then came off the bench and started hitting three consecutive three-point shots as they stretched their lead to 15 points with 11:25 remaining. Georgetown went four and a half minutes without a field goal in the middle of the second half before KJ Lewis made a field goal to break the slump. St. Johns, however, remained consistent on offense to maintain its advantage for the rest of the game.
The game’s deciding factor was that St. John’s scored 23 second-chance points to Georgetown’s 12.
Ejiofor led St. John’s with 25 points and tied for the team lead with 10 rebounds with Bryce Hopkins. Sellers had 16 points, going 4-for-5 from the three-point line. I’m Jackson, and I scored 14 points with four three-pointers, and Darling added 11 points off the bench. KJ Lewis scored a game-high 27 points for the Hoyas, while Malik Mack added 18.
Georgetown will play at DePaul on Tuesday night, while St. John’s will host Providence on Saturday afternoon.
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