Georgetown University Hoyas fell to the St. Johns Red Storm in the Big East Tournament in a game that was a tale of two halves for both squads. Georgetown’s size would determine their advantage early on, but St. John’s made the plays down the stretch. Led by 26-points from sophomore guard Shamorie Ponds, the Red Storms perimeter players completely out played those of the Hoyas, negating a brilliant scoring performance by Georgetown center Jessie Govan, who had 28 points and 11 rebounds.
He played well, not well enough. He’s getting better, said Patrick Ewing of his talented junior center. He still has a lot of work that he has to do on both ends of the court. He has to continue to run the floor on both ends. He still has to rebound. He has to become a better shot blocker.
And he has to do a lot more things for us. And I’m going to need him to be, when he comes back next year for his senior season, he has to be my leader. He has to start leading. And a leader, you can lead in a lot of different ways. And he’s going to have to choose which way that he wants to lead.
St. John’s BBall on Twitter
Best city in the world. Best fans in the world. Best tournament in the world. Can’t wait to get back at it in a few hours. #SJUBB https://t.co/PX8xjeTq9S
St. Johns lost two games against Georgetown this season, but the Johnnies always get up for the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Last year, St. Johns made a deep run in the tourney and hope to do the same again this season.
All the games have been really close games and ironically or not they really shot the three ball against us and they had nine at halftime, head coach Chris Mullin said. I thought our defense was much better in the second half.
I thought the first half, they got too many open looks, too many walk-in 3s. No resistance. I thought we were fortunate to be only down 6 at halftime. And I thought our defense picked up in the second half and offensively we kind of got moving. And, like I said, Justin and Shamorie really dictated the flow of the game.
St. John’s defeats Georgetown in 1st round of Big East tourney – ESPN Video
Shamorie Ponds drops 26 points in St. John’s 88-77 win over Georgetown to advance in the Big East tournament.
With their 88-77 win over Georgetown, the Red Storm move on to face Xavier in the quarterfinals.
I mean, for sure, most definitely, Mullin replied when asked if he believes his team can get hot. I think except for a couple of games, each and every game we showed that we can compete with anybody in the country. Our mindset going into the Big East Tournament was one game at a time. We know we can do it.
As many are aware, Patrick Ewing is in his first year as head coach at his alma mater. He and his St Johns counterpart battled in the Big East during its Golden Age.
Yeah, Patrick — look, I’ve known him for about 30 years or so, more than that, probably — but he’s the same person he was when I first met him, ” Mullin confirmed. And his work ethic, his discipline, that’s going to carry over to anything he does. Obviously, he did that as a player. He did it as an assistant coach in the NBA for many years.
St. John’s vs Georgetown | 2018 Big East Tournament | Highlights | FOX COLLEGE HOOPS
St. John’s outscored Georgetown 46-29 in the 2nd half of their 88-77 win in the first round of the Big East tournament.
Probably the biggest difference is we’re friends now, and we weren’t then at all. So, we didn’t even talk. We’ll goof around here and there. I think we both understand, you try and prepare our guys the best we can and then give them all the tools that they can have so they can go out and perform well.
