Julian Champagnie returns to form as the Johnnies sweep the Hoyas
Thursday night St. John’s made the trip down to Washington D.C. to face off against the Georgetown Hoyas on for a surprising mid-season clash on campus. The surprising bit being this game would normally be at the Capital One Arena but due to a Kacey Musgraves concert, had to be moved to on campus at the McDonough Arena.
This game was the second of the regular season series between the Hoyas and the Red Storm with the first game taking place a few weeks earlier in Madison Square Garden. In that one the Johnnies played one of their more complete games leaving Georgetown in the dust and Thursday night it would be more of the same as St. John’s rolled by Georgetown by a final score of 90 to 77.
It was once again a complete showing by St. John’s, as the Red Storm looked composed on both sides of the ball, whereas Georgetown once again were left in a lurch as the Hoyas despite some good stretches of play could not keep up with the Johnnies on the floor.
The win moves St. John’s up to 4-6 in conference play while Georgetown sinks to 0-9 in the Big East this season. Their first win in the new year let alone their first win in Big East play this season remains every elusive as the number of games runs thinner and thinner.
The biggest boost for St. John’s was Julian Champagnie returning to form after a four game stretch of cold shooting and poor play. He returned to form leading the way a 27 point game on 9-of-20 shooting. It does seem he is shooting at a high rate but when it pays off it pays off greatly for the Red Storm. Champagnie was not the only Red Storm scorer to have a big game, as the Red Storm had a whole host of double digit scorers tonight. Joining Champagnie was Joel Soriano who finished the night with 14 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting and was one rebound short of a double-double finishing the night with a game tying lead of nine rebounds on the game. Aaron Wheeler had a 13 point game on 5-of-11 shooting continuing his solid form. Rounding things out Dylan Addae-Wusu had an 11 point game and Posh Alexander had a 10 point game but made up for things by leading the way with six assists and seven rebounds on the game to put in a total effort. Interestingly, the Johnnies continued their roster churn of Mike Anderson using the lineup that he has to the fullest extent. The move in turn meant the Red Storm were able to flex their depth while also demonstrating a plug ‘n’ play style on the floor that no matter who was on the floor the Johnnies were going to keep going forward.
On the Hoyas side of things, it was another rough night in what has been a season for rough games and overall things going sideways. Still, there were bright spots for Georgetown as Donald Carey and Kaiden Rice both had great games for the Hoyas. Carey had a 23 point game on 7-of-14 shooting and Rice posted a 20 point game on 6-of-11 shooting. Both scoring totals were the second and third highest on the game. Rounding out the scoring the for the Hoyas was a 10 point game by Dante Harris. It is worth mentioning that leading scorer for Georgetown Aminu Mohammed had one of his worst games on the season posting only four points on the scoresheet and shooting 1-of-13. In all not a game worth remembering.
As a team, the Hoyas shot the ball at a rate of 37.5% from the floor, 37.5% from beyond the arc, and 70.0% from the foul line.
St. John’s on the other hand shot the ball at a rate of 50.7% from the floor, 34.6% from beyond the arc, and a rather dismal 64.7% from the foul line continuing their woes at the charity stripe. The Red Storm out rebounded Georgetown 44 boards to the Hoyas 40, and weirdly this game was not a turnover heavy game so overall was pretty negligible in terms of turnovers.
With this game in the books, St. John’s turns their attention to Saturday at noon at Hinkle Fieldhouse to take on the Butler Bulldogs as the Red Storm continue will be playing their third game this week as a means to make up for lost time on the schedule. Georgetown, on the other hand, turns their attention to Sunday as they take on the Providence Friars. It would be something if the winless Hoyas managed to knock off the hot Friars but that will left to be seen. Until then there is still enough games for the Hoyas to rescue some semblance of their season but overall this has been a lost campaign. St. John’s on the other hand are still trying to get back to .500 in the Big East and claw back some part of their season as well.