Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, Hollis Thompson, Otto Porter & Jason Clark:
There was both a beautiful symmetry and a huge inequality in Georgetown's 69-49 win over St. John's on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
In the first half as well as the second half, the Hoyas used extended runs to change the game. Lethargic and over-reliant on the three point shot, Georgetown trailed 13-5 eight minutes in. Behind five points from big man Henry Sims, the Hoyas erased that deficit and proceeded to nab the next eight straight between freshmen Otto Porter and Mikael Hopkins crashing the boards. When Jason Clark faked a three and stepped in to a long two, that concluded an 18-2 stretch which ended with Georgetown in front by eight.
"Once we picked up our energy level, the offense got better and the defense got better," said head coach John Thompson III.
After they switched to a longer, younger lineup that formed a 2-3 zone, the Red Storm had difficulty getting much done with the ball. St. John's shot 31.5% for the day and were 0-10 from three point range.
When in the second half a contest the Hoyas were consistently controlling at between nine to 11 points was suddenly drawn down to three on a pair of D'Angelo Harrison free throws capping an 8-0 Saint John's stretch, Hollis Thompson connected from in front of his team's bench off a Clark skip pass to ease the tension. Georgetown put the result away with their second long positive push, one that eventually totaled 20-3.
The difference between each frame was the junior Thompson. In the opening 20 minutes Thompson missed all five of his shots and left the floor scoreless with his team leading 25-19.
"If my last one hasn't dropped, it means I've got one coming soon," the confident Thompson stated.
He had more than one coming. In the final 20 minutes Thompson made all seven of his attempts including five threes and scored a team best 20. Thompson knocked down a three the first time he touched the ball and closed his impressive performance with one more deep jumper as Clark found him on the diagonal for a 20 point advantage.
Clark almost had a triple double with 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and if the Big East's leading three point shooter had been on target before intermission Clark would have come even closer.
The Hoyas had 19 offensive boards and the freshmen Porter and Greg Whittington combined to grab 11 of them. Porter's 10 boards looked nice next to 13 points in 31 minutes off the bench.
Moe Harkness totalled 21 for St. John's but was limited in the first half due to foul trouble and fouled out with 5:16 to go.
