Typically, the shoe has been on the other foot for the St. John’s basketball team in recent weeks. A struggling first half that would lead to a ferocious comeback victory in the second half, but Wednesday night inside Capital One Arena was just the opposite.
The No. 15 Johnnies came out on fire and didn’t look back. They had an answer for every defensive strategy in the book for Georgetown to begin the game and opened a 23-3 lead in in less than eight minutes, resulting in a 66-41 victory.
“That was the best defense/offense we ever played,” Rick Pitino said of his team’s first half showing.
Its lead grew to as many as 30 points, 41-11, with 2:54 remaining in the first half before taking a 47-21 advantage into the locker room.
“I think our best quality that we have is we’re humble,” Pitino added. “We just keep playing hard. We don’t think we’re great. We aspire to be great, but we don’t believe we’re great.”
St. John’s (18-3, 9-1 Big East) needed some of that humility after halftime because things were not as dominant in the second half for the Red Storm although it still had plenty in the tank to get to the finish line.
St. John’s shot just 29.2-percent after halftime and 1-of-10 from 3-point range with ten turnovers compared to its sizzling 61.8-percent in the first half and 5-for-11 from distance.
Georgetown (13-8, 4-6 Big East), however, was never able to get within legit striking distance of the Red Storm despite scoring the first eight points of the half as its deficit only was trimmed to 15 points, 55-40, with 6:33 remaining before Aaron Scott would hit a corner 3-pointer to ice the game and spark a 7-0 run.
Kadary Richmond and Zuby Ejiofor led the Red Storm with 13 points each while RJ Luis and Scott also got into double figuers with 10 points. Simeon Wilcher, remaining in the starting lineup due to the absence of Deivon Smith, recorded seven points, five assists, and five steals.
St. John’s held the Hoyas to 3-of-24 shooting to begin the game and its 26-point halftime lead was the second time in the last 25 years it had as big of an advantage at the break against a Big East team.
The Johnnies started 21-of-33 from the floor and the tone was set on the opening possession when Luis finished a layup through the Georgetown zone off an assist from Scott.
St. John’s returns to Madison Square Garden to host Providence (11-10, 5-5 Big East) on Saturday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network).