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Late run lifts Georgetown over St. John's

Feb 28, 2008 - 7:10 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Although it was nowhere as lopsided as the previous matchup, Georgetown continued its recent success against St. John's.

DaJuan Summers hit five 3-pointers and scored 21 points as the 10th-ranked Hoyas overcame a pesky Red Storm squad for a 64-52 victory in the Big East Conference on Wednesday.

Roy Hibbert added 17 points for Georgetown (23-4, 13-3 Big East), which topped St. John's for the fifth straight time, including the fourth consecutive at home.

In the previous meeting, the Hoyas thoroughly embarrassed the Red Storm at Madison Square Garden with a 74-42 rout that included St. John's being held to just 14 first-half points.

"They knew they didn't play well," St. John's coach Norm Roberts said of the previous meeting. "They deserved to beat us the way they beat us. Tonight we made more plays. We're playing freshman against juniors. Hopefully when my guys become juniors we can beat people like this."

The Red Storm (10-17, 4-11) clearly had that previous loss on their mind, shaking off a slow start to trail just 27-23 at the half despite a late 3-pointer by Jessie Sapp.

Although St. John's came into the matchup last in the Big East in scoring offense at 62.2 points, Georgetown was not caught overconfident.

"I don't think so," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. "Our guys know all their guys. They know they're good players. That was a blip. It was a night the stars aligned for us."

Building some confidence off that opening-half showing, St. John's made a push at the start of the second, tying the score at 27-27 after freshman D.J. Kennedy's layup followed up a sensational one-handed, alley-oop dunk by Anthony Mason Jr.

Although Georgetown attempted to pull away, St. John's kept answering, knotting the score at 36-36 on freshman Paris Horne's 3-pointer with 13:53 to go.

Hibbert responded with a layup and Patrick Ewing Jr. had an alley-oop dunk in transition as the Hoyas went on a 16-5 run to open a 52-41 advantage with 6:42 to play. Summers hit a 3-pointer during the burst and capped it with a three-point play.

The Red Storm got no closer than eight points thereafter, eventually losing for the fifth straight time.

Summers and Hibbert both scored 13 points in the second half as Georgetown avoided an upset by shooting 52 percent (11-of-21) from the field and converting 10-of-11 free throws after intermission.

"We told Roy (Hibbert) at halftime 'Let's be more aggressive,'" Thompson said. "When you get the ball into him, he can score, and he call also open up things for others."

Summers finished 7-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-8 from the arc, en route to scoring in double figures for the fifth straight game.

"In the first half, he missed some easy ones," Thompson said of Summers' performance. "I think he did a better job in the second half of not letting the makes and misses determine how he plays. He has the ability to put the ball in the basket. We needed it tonight."

Mason had 12 points and freshman Justin Burrell added 10 for St. John's, which failed to crack 65 points for the seventh straight game.

The Red Storm did shoot 46 percent (22-of-48) from the field, but attempted just five free throws compared to 16 for the Hoyas.