St. John's shakes off controversy, beats Georgetown

Jordan Dingle scored 22 points and St. John's responded to a challenge from coach Rick Pitino, leading wire to wire in a 90-85 win over Georgetown Wednesday in Washington.

RJ Luis Jr. contributed 19 points and six rebounds and Daniss Jenkins added 15 points and five assists as the Red Storm (15-12, 7-9 Big East) won for just the third time in 11 games.

Chris Ledlum had 12 points and three blocks while Joel Soriano logged 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks for the Red Storm, who shot 57.6 percent from the floor and made 7 of 16 (43.8 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.

The victory came three days after Pitino made national news with pointed criticism of his players in an awkward press conference after St. John's lost at home to Seton Hall, blowing a 19-point lead.

The Red Storm responded from the start against the Hoyas, building a 21-point lead in the first half before clinging to the advantage after intermission.

Jayden Epps had 31 points and seven assists to lead Georgetown (8-18, 1-14), which lost its 11th straight and sixth in a row to St. John's.

Rowan Brumbaugh had 15 points and Supreme Cook added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Hoyas.

Georgetown pulled within three points late in the game as Wayne Bristol Jr. made a pair of 3-pointers. the second with 43 seconds left. Luis answered with a tomahawk slam in transition 10 seconds later to put the Red Storm up 86-81.

Dingle propelled St. John's early, scoring all of the points for the Red Storm as they raced to a 9-2 lead.

Soriano bookended a nine-point run with two baskets and added a blocked shot during the spree to create a three-point-play fastbreak layup by Jenkins as the Red Storm took an 18-7 lead.

Later in the half, Jenkins fueled a 10-point St. John's run with back-to-back 3-pointers as St. John's took its biggest lead, 35-14.

Drew Fielder came off the bench for the Hoyas and drove for two buckets, one a three-point-play, and Brumbaugh drained a pair of treys as Georgetown went on a 14-2 spree in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the period to close the gap to 39-32.

Early in the second half, Epps scored to pull the Hoyas to within 39-35.

When Jenkins was called for a technical foul early in the half, teammate Simeon Wilcher entered for the first time and scored seven quick points as St. John's regained control.

In the final 8:27, Luis scored 11 points to keep the Red Storm in command.