St. John's Storms Back, Grinds Out W Against Georgetown

 

Zuby Ejiofor powered to the hoop to pull St. John's within eight with 14:45 left. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm grinded out a 72-69 win over Georgetown on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

This has vaulted St. John's into a tie with Connecticut for the top spot in the Big East with one game remaining.

St. John's is now 24-6 overall, including 17-2 in Big East play, while UConn is also 17-2 in conference, but 27-3 in all competition.

The regular season finale for St. John's is in Newark on Friday night against Seton Hall, while UConn is also on the road, at Marquette on Saturday afternoon.

Georgetown came out firing, as they shot 50.0 percent, or 14-28, and 3-7 on three-pointers, in the first half, to take a 34-26 lead at halftime. 

St. John's, who couldn't get into any rhythm on offense, shot a meager 35.5%, or 11-31 from the field, including 3-13 from three-point range.

Georgetown would open up a 12-point lead, at 48-36, with 14:08 remaining, on a Malik Mack layup.

St. John's responded with a 9-2 clip when Dillon Mitchell got a put-back off an Ian Jackson missed layup at the 11:45 mark, and that make it 50-45 Georgetown.

Ian Jackson had this pull-up jumper as part of a three-point play that pulled St. John's within 48-40. Photo by Jason Schott.

Then, Georgetown went back up seven, at 55-48, and St. John's responded with a 13-2 clip to take a 61-57 edge with 6:17 left. 

Taking a step back, it was a Dylan Darling steal that led to him laying one in that made it 59-57 at the 6:43 mark.

St. John's would never trail again, and they led by as many as five, at 70-65, with 1:30 left on a Joson Sanon layup with 1:30 left.

Zuby Euiofor led the way for St. John's with 23 points on 10-13 from the field, including 10-13 shooting, with seven rebounds, six assists, and two steals.

Joson Sanon had 15 points off the bench, as he was 5-11 from the field, including 3-8 from three-point range, with six rebounds and two assists.

Dylan Darling had 12 points (4-11 FG, 2-8 threes), steals, three assists, and three rebounds.

St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino said of the victory, "It was a great win for us. Senior nights are very difficult emotionally for players. We came out flat. My biggest disappointment was that we had open shots and we constantly counted our misses. With the exception of this young man to my right (Joson Sanon), who never met a shot he didn't like and came through for us with rebounds and shots. But, I'm a little disappointed, but elated we won. We had to make great plays down the stretch. 

"I'm disappointed because my guys are having a very difficult time understanding styles of play. This team (referring to Georgetown) has played Connecticut and Villanova to the wire. They keep it close with tempo and I tried to explain that to them. They just thought it was another game. So, they weren't mature enough to understand styles and that was very disappointing, as a coach. We had to really dig deep because we didn't have it to win and that's what it's all about with a good basketball team, digging down. We did a lot of good things with 10 minutes to go in the game to come away with a victory."