Hoyas Hold Red Storm To 15 Minutes of Infamy

NEW YORK, Jan. 30 -- The fans at Madison Square Garden rose to their feet and cheered when St. John's freshman Justin Burrell's short jumper bounced off the backboard and through the hoop late in the first half of the Red Storm's 74-42 loss to sixth-ranked Georgetown on Wednesday night. St. John's finally had a field goal, 15 minutes 26 seconds into the game, and the Hoyas' lead was down to 24 points.

The Red Storm managed one more field goal in the half, and the Hoyas coasted to their fourth straight victory -- a change from their previous two games, which they won in the final seconds.

"We are comfortable in tight situations, but obviously you'd much rather have a situation like today, where we were fortunate to jump out early, fortunate to get stops, fortunate to score," said Coach John Thompson III, whose team remains in sole possession of first place in the Big East, and will host Seton Hall on Saturday. "As a coach, you'd much rather have this game than a tight game where it's coming down to the last possession."

The Hoyas (17-2, 7-1) were without their second-leading scorer, sophomore DaJuan Summers; he sat on the bench with a protective boot on his left foot. On Tuesday, Thompson thought that Summers, who suffered a high ankle sprain in a win at West Virginia on Saturday, would be able to play, but the team's medical staff decided to hold him out.

But Georgetown didn't miss Summers. Senior Patrick Ewing Jr. started in his place and scored nine points and sophomore forward Vernon Macklin scored a career-high 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Macklin looked confident; he finished off nice passes from his teammates with emphatic one-handed dunks and tossed up soft hook shots.

He even converted 2 of 5 free throw attempts -- a superior showing for a player who was shooting just 18.5 percent (5 of 27) from the line.

"I have a comfort level with different groups, with different matchups," Thompson said. "Vernon has been working extremely hard; his coach and his teammates are comfortable with him being out there. . . . What he did today was not a surprise."

St. John's (7-12, 1-7) came into the game having lost seven of its previous eight games, and was ranked near the bottom of the conference in several offensive categories. The New York Post, in Wednesday's editions, searched for "a reason to believe that St. John's can snap its five-game losing streak with a shocking upset of Georgetown" and offered up "Angelina Jolie was once married to Billy Bob Thornton" as hope.

But after five minutes, it was fairly apparent that the Red Storm wasn't going to pull off the upset. Burrell stumbled and fell twice before the game was a minute old, and point guard Eugene Lawrence -- the lone scholarship senior -- had trouble just keeping control of the ball.

The Red Storm's first three possessions resulted in turnovers: Jessie Sapp (10 points) deflected a pass to Jonathan Wallace (eight points), Burrell walked and 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert (11 points) dove on the floor to corral a loose ball. Nearly three minutes elapsed before it put up its first shot (a missed layup), and almost four before it got on the scoreboard (two free throws from freshman D.J. Kennedy).

Meantime, Georgetown made 5 of its first 6 three-point attempts and built a 27-3 lead with 7:36 remaining until halftime. Looking at the scoreboard was "probably the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life," according to St. John's freshman Malik Boothe. His team had more turnovers (10) than field goal attempts (nine) at the time.

The Hoyas led 41-14 at halftime. Thompson kept reminding his players that the Red Storm was capable of making a run to get back into the game, but it did not happen. St. John's shot 12.6 percent in the first half and 21.3 percent for the game.

Georgetown capped the game with junior walk-on Bryon Jansen banking in a three-pointer from the left side at the buzzer. It was his first career basket, which delighted his teammates and it sealed the Red Storm's most lopsided loss in Big East play.

"I was surprised [that St. John's never made a run]; they're a Big East team and this conference is tough," Sapp said. "At the same time I was happy, we kept making runs and the score kept going up and we came out with the victory."