Coming into last night's Verizon Center game versus St. John's much was on the line for both Georgetown and the Red Storm, including winning streak maintenance, BIG EAST Conference standing and postseason opportunities/seating. It was truly February, in league college hoops.

From the outset it was apparent the night would be Georgetown's, as despite missing some makeable shots early the Hoyas bested SJU in energy, eventually walking away with a 79-57 win in front of 8,685 patrons.

"It was very refreshing" to win, after falling in three of the their last five games, summed Georgetown head coach John Thompson III afterward. His take on where the team is was "we're better than we were".

Head Johnnie Steve Lavin hit the nail's head, saying of Georgetown "they were razor sharp", while of his team "All night struggled to find any kind of rhythm offensively, and we didn't have an answer defensively".

He didn't lie.

The Johnnies shot 32.8% from the field, 31.8% on three pointers, compared to the Hoyas' 48.3% and 38.8% marks, the last including their first half 0-9 work beyond the arc.

St. John's best scorers, senior D'Angelo Harrison and sophomore Rysheed Jordan had games to forget: The backcourt standouts went a combined 1-15 for eight points, six rebounds, five assists and six turnovers in forty seven minutes of a play. Harrison, the team's leading scorer coming into last night was 0-9 from the field and led the game with five giveaways.

Senior forward Sir'Dominic Pointer (18 points) opined of Harrison's DC struggles - he's never played well there - "I don't think he likes this gym. When we play them at our house he's fine. But for some reason at this Verizon Center, he doesn't get a lot of shots off and he doesn't make a lot. So it is what it is here. He'll be fine the next time we play them".

Thompson seemed to also expect a Harrison recovery by February 28th, when his team travels to New York; to him, the performances of Harrison and Jordan were more or less an aberration, saying "You get lucky some nights" since "he doesn't have a game like that. You can't credit our defense, he was a little off today" of Harrison, and "That wasn't the Rysheed we've seen on tape...He was a little off also. Sometimes, it's good to be lucky".

He surely hopes the play of forward Isaac Copeland is not, as the freshman pulled down nine rebounds, including a game high four on the offensive glass. Add his team's balanced scoring: A sextet of Hoyas scored more than 10 points with a stunning five, Copeland, fellow freshman L.J. Peak, senior bigs Joshua Smith and Mikael Hopkins along with junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera all dropping 12 points. Senior wing Jabril Trawick finished with 11 points.

Coming into the game Smith, a 6'10", 350 pound mammoth was expected to dominate by the Hoya faithful, and he surely was a factor, scoring five straight early second half points including two dunks, the first extending G'Town's lead to 15. Pointer acknowledged the Seattle, Washington area product as "one of the better bigs in our league", but truly lamented the Hoyas' collective work, noting "They hurt us as a team. They have six people in double figures. That hurt us more than anything he did".

The Hoyas put this game away during the first half's last 8:45, holding SJU to no field goals and turning a four point deficit into their 10 point intermission league. Said Hopkins of that stretch "It was winning time. The main focus was to get stops".

Leading the game in caroms was Smith-Rivera (10 rebounds), with Hopkins adding eight. The Hoyas worked to an 43-33 overall board advantage. SJU's Pointer paced his team with eight rebounds.

Lavin, whose team was paced in scoring by senior guard Phil Greene IV's game high 18 points, termed his squad's Verizon Center run "a house of horrors" - the Johnnies have not won in DC in five tries - while also indicating "They've had their way with us" in the Nation's Capital.

Now sitting 17-9 overall, 6-7 and sixth amongst BIG EAST teams, St. John's welcomes a spiraling downward Seton Hall to its on-campus gym, Carneseca Arena on Saturday. Tip-Off is Noon EST, and the Johnnies hope to bounce back after their three game winning streak abruptly ended last night. With the BIG EAST Championship in a few weeks and fighting for a NCAA Tournament bid, wins are vitally important for SJU.

The Hoyas (17-8, 9-5), after a week's break before last night's win also next take the court Saturday, returning to Verizon Center for an 8p start against DePaul. Being third in the league now, good BIG EAST Conference tournament seating and Big Dance participation are within the Hoyas' control.

Thompson doesn't think his team has arrived, but likes its tracking.

"We can't get complacent. We're going to have some pretty hard practices here the next couple of days" said the coach. "But I think that a lot of it is our guys, our players, it takes time, but they are starting to take pride and understand attention to details are important.

"And so we're better than we were, but we still have to keep the focus that we've had lately and still keep trying to get better".