St. John’s falls in the Garden to Georgetown, 89-78

In the last matchup, Mac McClung was nattily dressed on the sidelines in Washington.

This afternoon, Mac McClung made a name for himself in Madison Square Garden, consistently raining jumpers as if he were Reggie Miller against the Knicks, to lead the Hoyas to a 89-78 victory.

The Red Storm fall to 15-5, 3-5 in the Big East. Georgetown earns their 13th win, improving to 13-7, 2-5 in the Big East.

Next, the Red Storm fly out to Omaha, Nebraska to take on the Creighton Blue Jays on Wednesday.

After St. John’s dropped the match at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Red Storm returned home to the friendly confines of Madison Square Garden to face off against Georgetown in what felt like a must-win game.

From the beginning, however, the Red Storm struggled to disrupt the Hoyas on offense, while missing open shots when they had possession.

St. John’s was able to keep the half close despite a huge differential in 3-point shooting; Georgetown started the half shooting 5/6 from deep. The Red Storm tightened up the perimeter defense holding the Hoyas to 1/7 for the rest of the half.

St. John’s perimeter offense struggled everywhere outside of the paint, going 1/10 from the midrange outside of the paint and 4/14 from beyond the arc.

While the jumpers were not going down, St. John’s attacked the bigger Georgetown in the paint offensively, nearly tripling the Hoyas’ production in the paint 22 to 8.

Despite the offensive woes, and a poor shooting first half from Marvin Clark II, St. John’s went into the half down only 41-37.

In the second half, the Red Storm tied the game at 50 early in the second half, but Georgetown responded with a 10-0 run to regain a double-digit lead.

St. John’s chipped away at the lead, keeping the game close, as they often do. This afternoon, Mustapha Heron’s 12 powered a comeback.

With just under 4 minutes remaining, Sedee Keita, who had possibly his best game at St. John’s, laid one in to cut the lead to three. But the late game execution failed the team.

In the last 2 minutes, the Red Storm then put themselves in a positions to win, a couple calls went their way, and a lay-up by Shamorie Ponds cuts the lead to 79-77.

With a chance to tie, St. John’s got the ball to the rim and had four chances at a tip-in, missing all of them. With the Johnnies trailing the play, Georgetown responded with a couple of dunks (the first by Mac McClung to cap his game), and the Red Storm only had 40 seconds to overcome a 4-point deficit.

Georgetown was able to beat the press and convert their free throws, and the Hoya’s left New York with a win, 87-78.

St. John’s Red Storm

Shamorie Ponds: 21 points (8/16 FG, 1/5 3PT), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 turnovers

Mustapha Heron: 18 points (7/16 FG, 2/5 3PT), 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover

LJ Figueroa: 14 points (6/11 FG, 2/2 3PT), 6 rebounds, 3 assist

Georgetown Hoyas

Mac McClung: 27 points (10/20 FG, 4/10 3PT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers

Jessie Govan: 20 points (7/14 FG, 2/3 3PT), 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 turnovers

Josh LeBlanc: 13 points (3/4 FG, 1/1 3PT), 6 rebounds, 1 assist