St. John’s 82, Georgetown 60: Box score breakdown and notes

NEW YORK – St. John’s made it five straight and eight of their last nine with a convincing 82-60 victory over Georgetown at Madison Square Garden. The Sunday evening meeting saw the Hoyas fall to 6-7 in the Big East while the Red Storm, after an 0-5 start are 7-6 and white hot.

Some key statistics on the evening:

Pace was a pedestrian 61 possessions. The St. John’s defense was above average. The offense, more than above average. Call it superlative. St. John’s led 7-0 after three minutes and scored the game’s first fifteen points.

From the stat sheet: Lead changes zero, score tied zero. St. John’s defense was reflected two fold. The Hoyas were held to a 48 percent eFG percentage while being forced into a 23 percent turnover rate. Georgetown was 3 of 13 (235) from beyond the arc. St. John’s shot 6 of 14 (42.9%) from downtown. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera led the Hoyas with 15 points. D’Angelo Harrison and Rysheed Jordan both scored 24 for St. John’s, tying for game-high scoring honors. In fact Jordan, a freshman guard,  scored the game’s first seven points.

Searching. Georgetown went man, zoned, did a little of everything on defense, but had no answer. To their credit they whittled down an 18-point intermission deficit to seven with just over ten minutes to play. St. John’s regrouped and won going away.

Virtually all night St. John’s guards dribble penetrated the paint. The result: an attack on the rim or dish off to a big man cutting inside.

Sharing the ball. The Red Storm assisted on 17 of their 27 field goals (a 63 percent rate). Georgetown had 11 assists on 21 field goals (52 percent).

Notes

• St. John’s enjoyed a 64 percent free throw rate. Offensively they put themselves in advantageous positions to draw fouls. Winning the offensive boards (OREB Pct) helped in that regard as well.
• Jabril Trawick scored 13 points and pulled down three boards for the Hoyas before exiting on fouls. It was somewhat of an ordinary night of work as the junior guard had one assist against three turnovers. The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Hoyas.
• Markel Starks came in averaging 20.6  points per game over the last five contests. Starks scored a very quiet 13 points while shooting 4 of 14 from the floor (one of six from beyond the arc).
• The media room had the Creighton-Villanova telecast airing. Creighton made it a sweep with a second convincing win over the Wildcats. The oOpinion here is Villanova just does not match up well with Creighton.
• Former Marist mentor Chucky Martin was in attendance. Martin scouts for the Oklahoma City Thunder these days.
• John Thompson III’s daughter Morgan took in the action from behind the Hoya bench. She is an athlete as well. Her sport of choice is not basketball but tennis. She competes on her high school varsity team. But she closely follows basketball, rooting for the Hoyas.