St. John’s basketball gets much needed comfortable win over Georgetown

The St. John’s basketball team picked up a much needed home victory against Georgetown. 

It was a game the St. John’s basketball team had to have and it got it by a comfortable margin, but it wasn’t easy.

After losses in its last two games to UConn and Providence in which it led in the second half, St. John’s needed to defeat its rival Georgetown on its home floor.

The Johnnies (10-5, 2-2 Big East) led by as many as 20, 63-43, in the second half before the Hoyas (6-8, 0-3 Big East) rattled off an 18-5 run to get within seven, 68-61, with 8:55 to play.

The Red Storm had one last closing kick to put away its Big East rival, 88-69, as Montez Mathis delivered the final blow.

Dylan Addae-Wusu was able to save a deflected pass from Posh Alexander on the baseline which Mathis dunked and brought The Garden to its feet and extended the St. John’s lead back to 15, 79-64, with 5:10 to play.

Alexander and Addae-Wusu looked like different players compared to Wednesday’s loss against UConn as the two both added 17 points for the Red Storm.

Addae-Wusu drained 4-of-5 attempts from 3-point range and Alexander went a perfect 4-of-4 from the floor and 9-of-10 from the free throw line.

The point guard also had six rebounds, seven assists, and six steals while Julian Champagnie led all scorers with 25 points.

St. John’s registered 22 assists on 30 made field goals in its victory.

St. John’s basketball defense turned up to another level

The defense of the Red Storm has been much discussed this season for its inability to get key stops and allowing opponents to score at will but that changed on Sunday afternoon.

St. John’s forced 21 Georgetown turnovers which resulted in 29 points and only committed ten turnovers itself.

“We were more focused on our defense than when we played Connecticut,” Alexander said.

However, the one major issue with the team was the 18 offensive rebounds the Hoyas were able to grab and turn into 22 second chance points.

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Posh Alexander left the action in the final three minutes with an injury but said that he was fine physically after the game.

St. John’s has another opportunity at a Quadrant 1 victory on Wednesday evening as the Johnnies travel to Omaha to face the Creighton Bluejays (10-5, 2-2 Big East).