Historic Run Lifts St. John’s Past Georgetown, 75-62

Wednesday, March 11

New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

17-15

Georgetown

15-17

St. John's

Georgetown

Historic Run Lifts St. John’s Past Georgetown, 75-62

3/11/2020 10:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Red Storm trailed by 10 with six and a half minutes to play

NEW YORK – The shots weren't falling, the Hoyas couldn't seem to miss and the Johnnies trailed by as many as 15 in the second half. All signs pointed towards an early BIG EAST Tournament exit for St. John's.

Somebody forgot to tell Marcellus Earlington.

The sophomore forward scored 10 consecutive points on a 23-0 St. John's run to end the game, as the Johnnies erased a 10-point deficit in the final 6:30 to defeat Georgetown, 75-62, on Wednesday night in front of a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd.

Earlington registered the second double-double of his St. John's career, finishing the contest with 19 points and 10 rebounds. He scored 17 of his 19 points after halftime, going 6-of-9 from the floor and a perfect 3-for-3 from three in the latter stanza.

The Red Storm's 15-point comeback marked the largest for St. John's in the 41-year history of the BIG EAST Tournament. The Johnnies sank six of their final eight field goal attempts during the game-ending run.

LJ Figueroa netted a game-high 22 points, 11 in each period. The junior from Lawrence, Mass., was more efficient in the second half, shooting 4-for-7 from the floor and 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Rasheem Dunn, who played a team-high 36 minutes, finished with nine points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.

The Johnnies forced 21 turnovers and matched a season-high with 16 steals on the night.

St. John's has now won a game in the BIG EAST Tournament in each of the past four seasons and has earned a date with top-seeded Creighton tomorrow at 12 p.m. on FS1.

Following a back-and-forth start to the contest, the Red Storm ripped off an 8-0 run to take a 24-17 lead with 10:53 to go. Figueroa capped the spurt with a triple, the only make of the Red Storm's first 11 tries from deep.

From there, Georgetown scored 21 of the game's next 25 points, moving ahead by as many as 10, 38-28, with 3:22 remaining in the half.

David Caraher scored five quick points for St. John's to pull the Red Storm back within five before Georgetown ended the half with four straight points to take a 42-33 edge into the locker room.

The Hoyas opened the second half with six unanswered, but the Johnnies responded with a 10-0 run of their own, closing the gap to five, 48-43, at the 14:21 mark of the latter stanza.

Trailing by that same five-point margin, 52-47, a few minutes later, the Red Storm had three looks at a bucket on one possession thanks to a steal and a couple of offensive rebounds, but couldn't get a shot to fall. Georgetown answered with four straight to push its lead back to nine, 56-47, at the midway mark of the period.

Down by 10, 62-52, with six and a half minutes to play, Figueroa nailed a triple to kick-start the Red Storm's historic run. Rutherford made a layup to bring St. John's within five before Earlington rattled off 10 straight points of his own, including a pair of 3-pointers, to put the Red Storm on top by five.

Figueroa added another trey before Dunn closed the run with five free throws.

St. John's improved to 29-33 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament and assured a winning record for Head Coach Mike Anderson in his first season at the helm of the program. Anderson has never suffered a losing season in 18 years as a head coach, one of just four active Division I head men to coach at least 15 year and never finish below .500.

Following Wednesday's contest, the BIG EAST Conference announced the remainder of the league's men's basketball tournament will be played under restricted attendance policy due to the rapid progression of COVID-19 and escalating developments nationally. For more information visit BIGEAST.com.