St. John’s leads Georgetown while Posh Alexander leads

This is the player that St. John’s was waiting.

Overall second floor impact. Defensive threats. Conductor attack.

Posh Alexander was on his best Sunday, after some shaky performances, and Johnnies followed him for an almost stress-free win.

Alexander was the best player in the ring against Georgetown, scoring, distributing and defending at a high level, and winning 88-69 afterwards. While on the field, St. John’s overcame Georgetown by 24 points to return to .500 in the conference game. Alexander has 17 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 6 steals and, perhaps most importantly, just one spin. He got more use on the ball, a move that paid off for Johnnies.

St.John’s appeared on the way to a needed laugher. It led 20, on the strength of an 18-7 run that included 10 points from Julian Champagnie. At that point, coach Mike Anderson went to his bench, and the game turned. Georgetown turned around with 11 of the next 13 points, and dropped only eight points with 7:43 remaining. Hoyas had taken 11 of 18 second-half shots at the time, after trying to find open looks in the first half.

With Champagne and Alexander repurposed, St. John’s quickly pushed back the lead into double digits, taking a 15 lead after Montez Mathis’s game with the remaining score at 5:10.

Champagne scored 25 points to lead St. John’s (10-5, 2-2) and Dylan Addae-Wusu added 17 points and seven assists. Mathis had 11, as Red Storm improved to 8-0 as he scored twice. Kaiden Rice scored 19 goals for Georgetown (6-8, 0-3), remained undefeated in the Big East and has lost four games in a row.

There was a lot to enjoy in the first half from St. John’s, although the defense started off quite shaky. Alexander was well controlled and efficient, making five assists without a turnover. St.John’s had 11 assists on 14 goals taken, turning Hoyas’ 12 passes into 15 points and no tackles, earning 15 free throws, 11 of which went. Champagnie scored 13 points after starting 1/5 from the field.

The score was 43-32 at halftime, and it was only so close since Georgetown had 12 second chance points. At one point, it had eight counterattacks after 13 missed shots.