WASHINGTON — If anyone wonders if the rivalry between St. John’s and Georgetown remains as bitter and white hot as it did in the days when Chris Mullin and Patrick Ewing squared off, the answer came yesterday.
“Hell yes!”
After the Hoyas busted up the Johnnies 68-56 to sweep the season series, Amir Garrett of St. John’s and Georgetown’s Jabril Trawick had to be separated on the postgame handshake line. The trash talk almost escalated into fisticuffs but Georgetown’s Nate Lubick restrained center Aaron Bowen from jumping in while assistant coaches and Verizon Center security pushed the players apart.
Trawick still was smarting from a play in Georgetown’s 71-56 win at the Garden on Jan. 12, when Garrett, falling out of bounds, rifled the ball off Trawick’s face. When yesterday’s game ended, after Georgetown smashed the Red Storm’s five-game win streak, Trawick decided the time was right to remind Garrett he didn’t appreciate the play and that the Hoyas owned the Red Storm.
“There were some words shared,” said St. John’s guard D’Angelo Harrison. “We were angry with Trawick. Tempers flared. It’s part of the game.”
It’s part of the St. John’s-Georgetown history.
Sources told The Post the Big East Conference office will look into the dustup by first interviewing the officials that worked the game and, if necessary, speaking to both coaches. Since no punches were thrown there isn’t likely to be any disciplinary action taken.
That would be fine with St. John’s, which has enough pain to deal with.
Starting point guard Jamal Branch, who crumpled to the court with 17:22 left to play, will have his left knee evaluated today. Lubick accidentally fell on top of Branch, who went down in a scrum of players under the Georgetown basket with 17:22 left and had to be carried off the court by teammates.
St. John’s director of athletic communications Mark Fratto said Georgetown’s team orthopedist, Dr. John J. Klimkiewicz, examined Branch’s knee and treated it with ice. Fratto said although the play looked bad, there was optimism Branch did not sustain a serious injury.
“He’s kind of hurt right know,’’ forward JaKarr Sampson said of Branch. “He’s kind of sad. But he’s going to be all right.’’
Sampson qualified that he was speaking about Branch’s emotional state, not his physical prognosis.
The outlook on the Johnnies (14-8 overall, 6-4 in the Big East) also is uncertain. This was their first loss since the Jan. 12 pounding, and they had a lot emotionally invested in trying to avenge that loss and prove their five-game win streak over the softer part of their schedule didn’t nullify their confidence.
“We’re still one of the top five in the Big East, so we’ll take it and get ready for UConn,’’ Harrison said.
Harrison needs all the confidence he can muster. He went 0-for-9 from the field yesterday and spent the last 8:52 on the bench. It was the first time in his St. John’s career that Harrison (two points) did not make a field goal. Sampson led St. John’s with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Lubick had the same numbers for Georgetown.
If the Johnnies, who fell behind 39-24 and never really threatened, get another shot at the Hoyas, it will be in the Big East Conference Tournament. And it won’t be for the feint of heart.
“I don’t know what happened,’’ said coach John Thompson III, who won his 200th game at Georgetown said of the dustup. “It’s two competitive teams, tough game, Big East basketball, tempers got a little heated.’’
Hell yes.