Joel Soriano scored 16 and grabbed eight rebounds as St. John’s fought off Georgetown 79-70 on Wednesday night in Washington.
AJ Storr added 15 points, David Jones contributed 14 off the bench and Andre Curbelo and Posh Alexander each logged 11 for the Red Storm (17-12, 7-11 Big East), who have won five straight over the Hoyas.
Brandon Murray logged 25 points and five rebounds for the Hoyas (7-22, 2-16), who couldn’t follow up a 68-62 win over Butler on Sunday and still have yet to win consecutive league games since March 2021.
Jay Heath poured in 16 points on 4-of-6 3-point shooting and logged a team-best seven assists for Georgetown.
After trailing by double digits at two separate points during the second half, the Hoyas had a chance to tie the game at 72-72 with just over a minute remaining.
Heath pushed the ball toward the basket on a fast break before throwing an errant alley-oop lob toward Bradley Ezewiro that Jones tipped away.
Alexander capitalized on Georgetown’s 19th turnover with a layup on the other end that gave St. John’s a 74-70 cushion with 1:07 to play.
The Red Storm made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to ice it as Georgetown went the final 2:36 without scoring.
The Hoyas struggled to overcome the Johnnies’ active defense and committed 20 turnovers. St. John’s had 16 giveaways of its own but held a 26-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Red Storm also dominated the Hoyas in points in the paint (54-30) and fastbreak points (29-11).
St. John’s leaned on Soriano for six quick points before its active defense quickened the pace and put Georgetown on its heels early.
Highlighted by a pair of Storr alley-oop dunks, St. John’s scored eight fastbreak points off Georgetown turnovers and bolted to a 24-10 lead.
Even after slowing the game down, the Hoyas struggled to contain Soriano, who added two more buckets to begin the game 5-for-5 as the St. John’s advantage stretched to 15 with under five minutes left in the half.
Georgetown buckled down on defense and showed some life during a 9-0 run to keep within single digits at halftime, 40-32.
–Field Level Media
