The last time St. John’s and Georgetown got together at Madison Square Garden, it was February 2 and the Hoyas overcame a 17-point lead with 16 minutes to play to pull out a one-point win over the Johnnies.
But Wednesday night, in the return match at the Garden, the Red Storm flipped the script on the Hoyas as they outscored Georgetown, 23-0, over the last 6:31 and rolled to a 75-62 win in the opening round of the BIG EAST Tournament.
It was the third time in the last four seasons the Johnnies have knocked the Hoyas out of the BIG EAST tournament.
“I always think the way we play is a game of runs,” St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson said. “And we had one of our better runs this year.”
That might be understating it just a tad.
After pulling out to a 42-33 lead at halftime, thanks in large part to Terrell Allen’s 18 first-half points, the Hoyas seemed to be in complete control. And when they opened up their lead to 48-33 early in the second half after an Allen free throw with 18:26 to play, it certainly looked like the Hoyas were about to take down the Johnnies for a third time this season.
But St. John’s had a different ending in mind, the third time being the charm.
The ninth-seeded Johnnies slowly began to chip away. A quick 10-0 run midway through the second half, with five of those points coming from Marcellus Earlington, brought them within 48-43 and the pro-St. John’s Garden crowd began to roar its approval. Georgetown did eventually nudge its lead back to 10 points at 62-52 after a layup by Allen and it looked like order had been restored in Hoya-Land.
But that’s exactly the time the bottom fell out on them.
“The Run” began innocently enough with a three-ball from L.J. Figueroa. Then after a layup from Nick Rutherford, there was Earlington making his presence known again, this time with a three-ball of his own and just like that the Johnnies were within 62-60.
You thought the Garden crowd was loud before? It hardly compared to how the large Wednesday night crowd was amped up now.
A layup by Greg Williams Jr. knotted the game at 62-all with 3:10 to go and when Earlington added five straight points on the next two St. John’s possessions for a 67-62 Johnnies‘ lead, well, everyone in attendance was going home with some level of ringing in their ears.
“We got every loose ball, we were getting rebounds, we were in attack mode,” Anderson said.
It was a fantasy-like stretch run for the Johnnies as they continued to pour it on the suddenly overwhelmed Hoyas who could do little to stem the Red Storm - or slow down Earlington.
“It was a great feeling,” said Earlington, who finished with 19 points. “I work on my shot every day and my teammates did a good job of finding me at my spots. I had good spot-up shots. It was great to go out there and go on that run.”
And when Earlington wasn’t causing nightmares for the Hoyas, it was Figueroa causing havoc. The junior finished the night with a game-high 22 points, including four three-pointers.
So what did he think of being such a key part of such a dominant ending to a BIG EAST Tournament game?
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Figueroa said. “Coach always emphasizes we’re never out of a game. We just go out there and play as hard as we can. Honestly, I don’t think anybody knew, on the court, that we were on a 23-0 run. It just felt like we were out there having fun and that’s how it’s supposed to feel.”
Anderson said the combination of his trademark pressing defense and Georgetown’s short rotation helped lead to the Hoyas’ demise.
“Fatigue was a big factor in this game,” Anderson said. “I thought they wore down at the end. With six minutes to go, I think it was a 10-point lead (62-52) and we went on an unbelievable run.”
The loss left Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing still in search of his first BIG EAST Tournament win as he is now 0-3 in postseason play.
“They gave it their all,” Ewing said. “Blood, sweat and tears. I had to play them 40 minutes a game.”
The loss also marked the end of Jagan Mosely’s Georgetown career and this one stung more than all the others.
“It still doesn’t feel real to be honest with you,” Mosely said. “It kind of still hasn’t hit me that the game ended like that. You never want to go out on a loss. But you never want to end it like that.”
St. John’s has little time to celebrate the win as the Storm now have to turn their focus to a quarterfinal-round battle with No. 1 Creighton at noon on Thursday. The two teams split their two regular-season games with the Johnnies winning the most recent game, 91-71, on March 1 at Carnesecca Arena.
“I believe we can beat any team,” Earlington said. “So we’re going to take it like it is any other team. Have the same preparation. Go in with the same mindset.”