St. John's basketball eliminated by Georgetown in Big East quarterfinals

On Saturday night, the St. John's basketball team fell victim to an upset as Georgetown defeated the Johnnies, 53-44, to advance to the Big East Tournament semifinals.

The Hoyas raced out to a 17-7 lead after the first quarter, beginning the game on a 10-0 run, and it was an uphill battle the entire game for St. John's to get back into the contest.

Things started to look promising for the Red Storm in the 3rd quarter, shooting 60% from the field and closing the Georgetown lead down to five, 35-30, however, a near-perfect shooting quarter by Georgetown held St. John's off to complete the upset.

The Red Storm were held to 36-percent shooting and shot just 2-of-14 from the 3-point line. Jillian Archer led St. John's with 16 points, but leading scorer Unique Drake was held to 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting.

Georgetown graduate student forward and second leading scorer Graceann Bennett led the way for the Hoyas with 16 points while Kelsey Ransom chipped in 13 points.

The Hoyas dominated the glass on the Red Storm out rebounding St. John's, 31-19, including grabbing 11 offensive rebounds.

Georgetown advanced to play Creighton in the Big East Tournament Semifinals and pulled off another upset before losing to top-seeded UConn in the championship.

The loss means it will be a long wait for the Red Storm's next game, which will likely come in either the WNIT or the newly created WBIT (Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament).

The regular season was filled of highs and lows for St. John's, with some good performances in conference play to earn the No. 3 seed in the Big East Tournament, its highest finish in the league since 2019-20.

However, its non-conference results could have used some more wins to get the team closer to the NCAA Tournament conversation.