St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Welcomes Georgetown to MSG on Saturday
2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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QUEENS, N.Y. - Looking to capture its third-straight victory inside "The World's Most Famous Arena," the St. John's men's basketball team will welcome longtime BIG EAST foe Georgetown to Madison Square Garden on Saturday for a 12 p.m. tip.
The game will be broadcast on FSN, which will be picked in the New York Metro area on YES Network. Justin Kutcher and Donny Marshall will be on the call. Fans can also listen to the St. John's IMG Network radio broadcast on 570 AM WMCA and the TuneIn Radio app. John Minko will handle the play-by-play duties while Brandon Tierney will deliver the color commentary.
St. John's (12-16, 6-9) enters Saturday's contest on the heels of two road losses at Butler and Marquette. In those two games, the Red Storm saw its opponents shoot lights-out from downtown, as the Bulldogs made 13 of their 26 three-point attempts and the Golden Eagles converted on nine of their first 12 tries from distance before finishing the contest 12-of-24.
Prior to that road swing, the Red Storm won two home games in Midtown against Marquette and Seton Hall, defeating the Golden Eagles, 86-72, on Feb. 1 before taking down the Pirates, 78-70, on Feb. 11. In those two games, the Johnnies clamped down defensively, averaging 8.0 blocks and 8.5 steals per contest to pick up their fifth and sixth BIG EAST wins of the season. The Red Storm also excelled at the free throw line in those two games at The Garden, sinking 31 of their 35 chances.
On Wednesday night against a sharp-shooting Marquette squad, Bashir Ahmed registered his third 20-plus point performance of the season, finishing two points off his career-high with 21. The junior from the Bronx has now reached double figures in 12 straight games and 15 of his last 16 contests.
The dynamic freshman duo of Marcus LoVett (17.2 ppg) and Shamorie Ponds (17.1 ppg) has also continued to impress, as the rookies rank sixth and seventh, respectively, in the conference in scoring. In league play, Ponds leads the BIG EAST with 2.1 steals per game while LoVett ranks third with 1.8 per outing. Should Ponds finish the regular season atop the league's steal standings, he would be the first freshman to do so since John Linehan of Providence accomplished the feat in 1998-99 en route to becoming the conference's career leader in that category. Ponds is also just 22 points shy of becoming the third freshman in St. John's history to reach the 500-point plateau. The Brooklyn native would join Erick Barkley (500,1998-99) and D'Angelo Harrison (544, 2011-12) on that esteemed list.
Georgetown (14-14, 5-10) makes its first trip to "The Mecca of College Basketball" this season on the heels of a 67-65 loss at home on Wednesday night. The Hoyas possess two of the conference's most dangerous scorers in graduate student Rodney Pryor (18.1 ppg) and junior L.J. Peak (16.4 ppg), who rank third and ninth, respectively, in the BIG EAST in scoring.
Saturday's contest marks the 107th all-time meeting between St. John's and Georgetown. The Johnnies hold a 55-51 advantage in the series and have won five of the last eight contests at Madison Square Garden.
After hosting Georgetown, the Red Storm goes on the road to face No. 23/23 Creighton on Tuesday before returning to MSG for its regular-season finale with Providence next Saturday.
