St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin said that his team would surprise people come conference play, however, nobody could’ve seen what happened Saturday afternoon in Washington D.C.
In an unprecedented move, Lavin opted to start recent non-redshirt Felix Balamou and walk on Khadim N’Diaye to fire up his team along with juniors D’Angelo Harrison and Sir’Dominic Pointer andgraduate senior Orlando Sanchez in Georgetown’s 77-60 thrashing over the Red Storm.
The fire was never kindled as Georgetown had a double-digit lead just five minutes into the game. St. John’s shot a putrid 21% from the field and committed 11 turnovers.
“Georgetown dominated the first half. Our effort and execution were better in the second half, but this league is too strong to not compete for 40 minutes,” Lavin said to reporters. “We’re now 0-2 like Georgetown was at this point last year and we will turn our attention to preparing for a very good Villanova team. Clearly we need to put two halves together if we expect to be able to win.”
Hoyas’ guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera led all scorers with a game high 31 points, shooting 9-for-12 from the floor and 6-for-7 from downtown. At one point in the contest, Smith-Rivera outscored the Red Storm 27-26.
Guards Markel Starks and Jabril Trawick had 12 and 9 points, respectively. Starks and freshman Rysheed Jordan were assessed double-technical fouls when Starks bumped Jordan after Jordan fouled Starks hard. Trawick was also given a ‘T’ because of his extra-curricular activity with sophomore center Chris Obekpa.
Wing Max Hooper was the high man for the Johnnies as he netted 13 points. Harrison, like many Johnnies, had a tough day at the office. Harrison scored 4 points while shooting the 1-for-12 from the floor.
The 60 points scored by Lavin’s crew is tied for the lowest season total. They scored 60 at Xavier as well.
The Red Storm will look for their first Big East victory next Saturday when they host Villanova at 1 p.m.
