Teams

Georgetown:
The Hoyas played uninspired basketball for nearly three-fourths of the game, but still managed a relatively easy victory. Turnovers and missed lay-ups hurt Georgetown and let St. John’s stay in the game. But, the Hoyas committed only one turnover over 10 minutes during a critical second half stretch to turn a tie game into a 13 point lead.

St. John’s:
The Red Storm kept it close for more than a half, thanks to a great shooting percentage, 45.8% on the night. However, it always seemed as if it was just a matter of time until the Hoyas pulled away, as was eventually the case. St. John’s had no way to stop Roy Hibbert on the inside and did not do a good enough job closing out on Georgetown’s shooters, giving up uncontested three pointers.

Players

Georgetown:
DaJuan Summers started the game by hitting a three-pointer from the baseline. That seemed to be the story of the game. Summers finished with 21 points and was 5-8 from beyond the arc. On a night where the team seemed to do little offensively, he was able to make shots to give the Hoyas a boost. Unfortunately, he was only 2-7 inside the arc, missing two dunks and three layups. But, in a game where no one looked particularly sharp, I think we can let him slide. Just don’t make it a habit, DaJuan.

St. John’s:
Anthony Mason Jr. did all he could to keep the Red Storm in the game out of the break. He started the second half with a huge one-handed alley-oop slam. He later stole a pass and took it the length of the court for a two-handed finish, and a few possessions later hit a three to cut the Georgetown lead to one. It looked as though Mason was ready to have a big night. That never came to fruition though, and the Red Storm fell into a hole that they would be unable to dig out of.

Coaches

After Mason’s three pointer cut the lead to one, Wallace answered with a three-ball of his own, and Coach Thompson immediately called timeout. He brought in defensive stopper Jeremiah Rivers in an effort to stop a scorer who was getting hot. Rivers more than answered the task, as Mason did not score again. Credit Coach with a good personnel move. He also waited until after Wallace hit the three to call timeout, which is deserving of props as well.

Referees

The referees called few fouls in this game, which was much different from the last time these two teams met. Georgetown made the most of their free throw opportunities, going 87.5% from the stripe.

Fans

A 9:00 start time against an inferior opponent makes it a little hard to sell tickets. Just over 9,000 came out to see this one, and much like the Hoyas, they were a little lackluster. However, when St. John’s tied it early in the half, the crowd tried to rally the Hoyas, and were rewarded with a number of big threes, and a pretty fast break that ended in a throw-down for Ewing.

Number of the Game

87.5: Percentage of free throws made for Georgetown. The Hoyas went 14-16 from the line to shoot their best free throw percentage all year. A big turnaround from the 40.9% they shot earlier in the year.

Purple Champions

On Monday, the Gonzaga Eagles defeated Archbishop O’Connell to win the WCAC championship. This team has deep allegiances to the WCAC, as Gonzaga is Coach Thompson’s alma mater, and freshmen Austin Freeman and Chris Wright played for DeMatha and St. John’s, respectively. We asked Coach if he let the freshmen hear about the victory. He said, “They knew. They knew. They were waiting for me to say something the whole time, but they knew.”