St. John’s completes undefeated January with beatdown of Georgetown

WASHINGTON – Nobody’s perfect, but St. John’s has been in January.

The 15th-ranked Red Storm played Georgetown on Tuesday night in the last of the seven games on its schedule in the month and scored a 66-41 Big East win at Capital One Center for its seventh straight victory.

St. John’s was a tour de force on defense and matched it with a great offensive first half to build a lead as big as 30 points before holding the Hoyas at arm’s length in the second half.

It’s the first time since 1984-85 its had a perfect January and just the seventh time the Storm has done that since World War II.

The Red Storm (18-3, 9-1) have won seven straight and 13 of their last 14 games. This is the team’s best start to a season since 1985-86 when it started 20-2 and this is its best start in conference play since the 1984-85 season that ended with St. John’s reaching the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

They were again without guard Deivon Smith (right shoulder).

Georgetown (13-8, 4-6) has lost six of its last seven contests and this is the worst beatdown its suffered at the hands of St. John’s since a 39-point loss to the Storm in 1972.

Kadary Richmond and Zuby Ejiofor each scored 13 points, Aaron Scott and RJ Luis Jr. each had 10 points and Simeon Wilcher had seven points five assists and five steals for St. John’s.

Malik Mack scored 13 for the Hoyas, which shot just 25% for the game.

St. John’s didn’t just turn off Georgetown’s tap in this one. The Storm never even let the Hoyas get the water going in a first half that was very close to a defensive masterpiece.

St. John’s scored the game’s first 11 points in just 3:48 and had the margin to 20 less than four minutes later when Ejiofor put back a Luis miss for a 23-3 lead with 12:14 left in the first half.

The Red Storm pushed its advantage to 30 when Jaiden Glover drove for a reverse layup to make it 41-11 with 2:54 to go until halftime and St. John’s led 47-21 at the intermission.

Georgetown made only one of its first 11 shots and followed that by making only two of its next 11. When the St. John’s margin hit 30 points, the Hoyas had made just four of 26 shots.

St. John’s didn’t let Georgetown get to the rim much and when it got inside the perimeter, the paint was defended with tenacity. In those first 20 minutes, the Hoyas were 3-for-11 on three-point shots, 4-for-19 inside the arc and made 23% from the floor in total.

The Storm made 62% from the floor and was 5-for-11 on three-pointers at the half while committing just three turnovers.

The Hoyas clearly didn’t take kindly to being humiliated on their home court in the first half and started the second with eight unanswered points.

St. John’s left the strong offense it had played before the break in the locker room at halftime and opened the second half with a stretch of 3-for-17 shooting with seven turnovers. And while the Hoyas might have looked for a time like they might get back into the game, they didn’t.

When Thomas Sorber made one of two free throws with 6:33 to play, the lead had been whittled to 55-40. That was as close as Georgetown would get.

The Storm scored on the next three possessions: a Scott three-pointer, a pair of Wilcher free throws and a driving layup by Richmond to get the lead back to 62-40.

Notes & quotes: Smith wasn’t available for the game as he continues to recover from a right shoulder injury. The hope is that he will be available and at least appear in Saturday’s noon game against Providence and be fully back in form for the Feb. 4 game against No. 9 Marquette .  .  .  Already more than 15,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday’s game against the Friars at the Garden. St. John’s AD Ed Kull said that approximately 500 were sold on Tuesday alone  .  .  . Brady Dunlap remains a long shot to comeback from a small abdominal tear that he is trying to rehab without surgery, however he appeared fully-healed from the December surgery to repair a ligament in his left hand when he put up shots while the Storm was loosening up more than an hour before game time.