Rysheed Jordan electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd at the start. D’Angelo Harrison gave them a reason to celebrate later.
Together, the two dynamic guards led St. John’s to yet another impressive victory, a commanding 82-60 rout of Georgetown, the Johnnies’ nemesis which had won six straight contests between the rivals before Sunday night’s domination.
“It was one of the best games I’ve seen at St. John’s,” junior forward Sir’Dominic Pointer said, smiling broadly after his first victory over Georgetown.
At its current pace, St. John’s may skip the NCAA Tournament bubble and go straight into the field of 68.
The Red Storm (17-9, 7-6 Big East) have now won eight of their last nine games and five Big East contests in a row. They moved into a fourth-place tie with Providence in the league, just a game behind Marquette and Xavier for third. That 0-5 start in the conference seems like years ago.
Harrison and Jordan combined for 48 points, 24 apiece. Working well off each other, they shot 15 of 26 from the field, combined to make 13 of 14 free throws and sink five 3-pointers.
“D’Angelo and Rysheed were emblematic of our team tonight and really set the tone, Rysheed early and D’Angelo after Georgetown made a run,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said. “Their aggressiveness with purpose made a big difference for us tonight.”
It was Jordan at the outset, scoring the game’s first seven points as St. John’s raced to a 15-0 lead and 46-28 halftime edge. Harrison made sure Georgetown didn’t turn the festive evening sour, hitting one big shot after another in the second half as the Hoyas made their run.
Jordan, the freshman from Philadelphia and the highest-rated recruit of the Lavin era, is getting better by the day. He knocked down three 3-pointers, had three assists and ran the Johnnies offense to a tee.
“Now that his jump shot is falling, it’s really hard to guard us,” Harrison said.
Harrison, meanwhile, shook off his Hoya woes — he came in averaging just 8.4 points per game in five matchups — scoring inside and out. His breakout included several key baskets as Georgetown (15-10, 6-7) made its run in the second half.
It was nothing new to Lavin, who has seen this side of Harrison for a while. It was Harrison who hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in last Sunday’s upset of No. 18 Creighton, Harrison who made so many clutch shots during the non-conference portion of the schedule.
“That’s that Reggie Jackson element he has,” Lavin said. “Big game, big stage, he wants the ball in his hands in crunch time.”
JaKarr Sampson added 12 points. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera led Georgetown with 15, and Markel Starks and Jabril Trawick each scored 13 in a losing effort.
The lead ballooned to 52-32 early in the second half on a Jordan 3-pointer, but Georgetown came storming back, ripping off a 19-4 run to get to within 56-49 with 10:45 left. Harrison, however, answered with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc — part of the junior scoring nine straight points — and Georgetown never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
Jordan’s left-handed layup pushed the lead back to 12 with 5:51 left and he capped the impressive victory with a windmill slam in the waning moments.
“He’s coming into his own,” Pointer said. “At the beginning he was a little hesitant doing stuff, he was shaky, and now he’s become the point guard we know he can be, what we saw over the summer, what we talked about from the beginning of the year. This is not new to us. We were waiting for it to come.
“He’s showed up to the party.”
As a result, St. John’s seems headed to a very popular party — The Big Dance.
St. John’s hosted Roselle Catholic (N.J.) standout Isaiah Briscoe, considered one of the top junior point guards in the country, for the game. Wings Academy junior center Jessie Govan, another St. John’s target, was also on hand. … Sophomore guard Jamal Branch missed his second straight game after undergoing multiple oral surgeries but Lavin said he expects him to play Tuesday.