St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Georgetown
St. John's Loses Heart-Breaker To Hoyas
1/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan 20, 2004
By JOSEPH WHITE
AP Sports Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Courtland Freeman's dunk with five-tenths of a second remaining gave Georgetown a 71-69 victory over St. John's on Tuesday, breaking a three-game Hoyas losing streak and leaving the Red Storm as the only winless team in Big East play.
Ashanti Cook dribbled the clock down and hit Freeman with a sharp cross-lane pass. Freeman rammed the ball home after moving past Grady Reynolds, who had tied the game with a dunk with 26 seconds remaining.
Freeman finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high seven assists for the Hoyas (11-3, 2-3). Georgetown had lost seven straight to St. John's, including a 70-67 victory in last year's NIT final.
St. John's (4-11, 0-5) has lost five straight, its longest losing streak since the 1996-97 season. Elijah Ingram, who did not start for the second straight game, scored 14 points, as did Kyle Cuffe and Reynolds.
The game was not pretty, but at least it was competitive. There were 16 ties, and neither team led by more than six.
The teams, long removed from their heyday as the powers of the Big East, put on a first-half exhibition of sloppy ball-handling and bad shooting that made it clear that neither will be contending for anything this year. There were 17 first-half turnovers and 30 for the game.
At one point, St. John's was 3-for-15 from the field, while Georgetown was 4-for-12. But both teams shot 50 percent or better in the second half.
Darrel Owens scored 15 points for Georgetown, and Brandon Bowman had 14. Gerald Riley scored 11 despite getting his fourth foul early in the second half.
Ingram, St. John's second leading scorer, and Cuffe did not start Sunday's loss at Villanova after being late for a film session on Saturday. Coach Kevin Clark had indicated that Ingram's punishment was over, but Ingram surprisingly began this game on the bench as well.
Ingram entered with 17:22 remaining in the first half and didn't sit down until halftime. He made 3 of 5 3-pointers and had 11 points at the break.
