St. John's Red Storm at Georgetown Hoyas

No. 15 St. John's builds a huge early lead and beats Georgetown 66-41 for its 7th straight win

Eight players scored for the Red Storm, on their longest run of consecutive wins in Big East play since 2000. St. John's (18-3, 9-1) is off to its best start since opening the 1985-86 season 20-2 during the program's heyday under Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca.

Tied with No. 9 Marquette atop the league standings, St. John's is 9-1 in conference games for the first time since the 1984-85 team was 14-0 on the way to an outright Big East regular-season title and a Final Four appearance.

This one was over early, with Rick Pitino's team jumping ahead by scores of 23-3 and 37-9 and leading by 30 late in the first half. Malik Mack had 13 points for Georgetown (13-8, 4-6), which cut the margin to 15 with 6:33 remaining but could not close the gap any further.

It was the fewest points allowed by St. John's in a Big East game and its stingiest defensive performance overall since an 82-39 rout of Drake in November 2010.

Takeaways St. John’s: The path to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019 is clear in Pitino’s second season in Queens. St. John’s has its highest ranking in the AP Top 25 poll since the week of Dec. 29, 2014. The Red Storm jumped five spots after rallying to beat Xavier in overtime last week.

Georgetown: Scoring is an issue for coach Ed Cooley's bunch. The Hoyas failed to reach 70 points for an eighth consecutive game, the program's longest such stretch since 2005-06, and 41 was their lowest total of the season.

Key mom ent After Georgetown got within 15, Aaron Scott ended a scoring drought of over four minutes for St. John's by making a 3-pointer with 5:04 remaining.

Key stat St. John's has won the last nine meetings dating to Georgetown's 97-94 OT victory in December 2020.

Up next St. John’s: Will host Providence at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Georgetown: Hosts Butler on Friday night.

How can I watch St. John's vs. Georgetown?

• TV Channel: St. John's at Georgetown 2021 College Basketball, week 13, is broadcasted on FS1.
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