Field Level Media
Feb 3, 2022
Julian Champagnie shook off a slump with 27 points and Joel Soriano had 14 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots as St. John's eased past Georgetown 90-77 on Thursday in Washington, keeping the Hoyas winless in the Big East Conference.
Aaron Wheeler scored 13 points, Dylan Addae-Wusu had 11 and Posh Alexander had 10 points and six assists for St. John's (12-9, 4-6 Big East), which recorded its first regular-season series sweep of the Hoyas (6-14, 0-9) since 1998-99.
Champagnie had scored in single digits in the Red Storm's previous four games, during which his team went 1-3. He averaged 7.8 points in those games. Champagnie made 6 of 12 shots from 3-point range Thursday.
Donald Carey scored 23 points and Kaiden Rice added 20 for the Hoyas, who also lost 88-69 at St. John's on Jan. 16. Dante Harris scored 10 points for Georgetown, which didn't benefit from the change of scenery to its cozy on-campus arena.
St. John's opened the second half with a 10-0 run to take a 55-38 lead. Soriano scored the first two baskets, on a jumper and a fast-break dunk off a feed from Alexander, who redirected the ball to a trailing Soriano in one motion by tapping it back to him.
A steal by Alexander then led to a Champagnie 3 and caused Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing to call a timeout. But it didn't help. The Hoyas missed two shots on the following possession and Champagnie drilled another trey for a 55-38 advantage with 17:20 left.
Champagnie's 3-pointer with 7:52 left gave St. John's its biggest lead, 76-50. The closest Georgetown got was 82-71 on a layup by Collin Holloway with 3:49 to go.
Esahia Nyiwe's putback dunk capped an 11-2 run that gave St. John's a 15-6 lead with 14:09 left in the first half. St. John's led 23-15 after two foul shots by Addae-Wusu with 11:31 left in the half.
St. John's went ahead 31-22 on a jumper by Champagnie with 8:16 left, but Georgetown crept to within three at 36-33 after two foul shots by Carey with 3:57 to go. However, a 9-2 run capped by Addae-Wusu's layup following an Alexander steal gave the Red Storm a 45-35 lead with a minute to go.
Carey's trey 24 seconds later trimmed Georgetown's halftime deficit to 45-38.
--Field Level Media