St. John’s at Georgetown
When: 1:00 PM ET, Sunday, February 12, 2012
Where: Verizon Center, Washington, District of Columbia
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THE STORY: Georgetown just missed a chance for a marquee win when it took No. 2 Syracuse to overtime on Wednesday, but the 11th-ranked Hoyas can still improve their resume by taking care of business against five straight unranked opponents, starting with St. John’s. Georgetown has won six straight at home in the series and used its Big East-best scoring defense (58.8 points) to rout St. John’s 69-49 last month. The Red Storm have dropped two straight games by a combined 47 points.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, ESPN, ESPN3.com
ABOUT ST. JOHN’S (10-14, 4-8 Big East): The Red Storm are 0-9 against ranked teams and will have their shortest roster yet for this matchup. Junior guard Malik Stith left the team last week, leaving the Johnnies with only six scholarship players that see regular action. That means even more of a burden is placed upon an all-freshmen starting lineup that hasn’t played consistently on either end of the floor over the past two games. The Red Storm let both visiting Cincinnati and Syracuse shoot better than 51 percent. Defense, though, wasn’t the problem in their first matchup with the Hoyas. Instead, St. John’s, which ranks last in the conference in assists, struggled in the half-court set and went 0 for 10 from 3-point range.
ABOUT GEORGETOWN (18-5, 8-4): The Hoyas’ defense is predicated on aggressive ball pressure that has troubled even the conference’s most seasoned guards. Georgetown held Syracuse senior Scoop Jardine to 1-of-7 shooting in the 64-61 overtime loss and limited UConn’s Jeremy Lamb to 4 of 18 in a home win earlier this month. The Hoyas have been dominating the boards just as well, outrebounding the Orange by 18 and owned the Red Storm by 12. St. John’s was outrebounded 46-22 last time out against Cincinnati.
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1. St. John’s leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison went 1 for 12 with four turnovers in the first matchup, while Georgetown’s two top scorers, Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson, combined for 35 points.
2. Georgetown is 12-1 at home; St. John’s is 2-6 on the road.
3. Moe Harkless may have hit the freshman wall. The versatile slasher had been the team’s leading scorer most of the season and scored 21 points and 10 rebounds against Georgetown. Harkless, though, has reached double figures once in the last three games and is shooting 28.2 percent.
