WASHINGTON — After three days in the news cycle for critical comments made by Rick Pitino, St. John’s created its own headlines.
It won a basketball game.
It wasn’t pretty. There was an ugly stretch to end the first half. But it was a victory, and for a team that had just two of those over the last five weeks, that had to feel good
If the Red Storm players held any animosity towards Pitino after he called this year “the most unenjoyable experience of my life,” they didn’t show it.
They started extremely well and avoided their second half collapses of the last month to earn a 90-85 victory over Big East punching bag Georgetown at Capitol One Arena.
St. John’s (15-12, 7-9) had lost eight of its previous 10 games, and had blown halftime leads in its last four defeats.
It did get close late.
Georgetown trailed by just three with 43.8 seconds left, but St. John’s beat the press and RJ Luis threw down an emphatic slam.
Joel Soriano followed with two free throws as the Johnnies snapped a three-game losing streak.
Jordan Dingle scored the Johnnies’ first nine points and led five players in double figures with 22.
Luis added 19 and Daniss Jenkins had 15. Jayden Epps had 31 points for Georgetown.
St. John’s treated Georgetown like a punching bag for most of the first half.
It made 15 of its first 21 shots. It held a 21-point lead. Then, like everything else of late, it all went wrong in a hurry.
Shots stopped falling.
The defense broke down.
Georgetown ripped off an 18-4 run that coincided with the Johnnies missing 10 of 11 shots and going scoreless over the final 2:33 of the half.
They still held a seven-point edge at the break, but it should’ve been much more considering they shot 50 percent from the field and were plus-nine on the glass.
Over the final 5:32 of the half, St. John’s didn’t make a single shot and committed three turnovers, two by Jenkins.
Jenkins and Dingle combined to score 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting in the opening half and Joel Soriano had eight points and eight rebounds.
Georgetown scored the first three points of the second half, and it looked like so many of St. John’s most recent games.
But Dingle scored on consecutive possessions to settle the Johnnies down and freshman Simeon Wilcher provided a spark off the bench, scoring seven points in as many second-half minutes.
He spearheaded a 12-2 run that gave St. John’s a 17-point lead.
