The sophomore nearly had a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocks in a wild back-and-forth game that saw 15 lead chan...
The sophomore nearly had a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocks in a wild back-and-forth game that saw 15 lead changes in the 117th meeting between conference rivals.
“Nine blocked shots — that’s Ewing, Mourning, Mutombo numbers right there,” Ewing said. “For the most part, he did a great job. I was cussing him out, but then I wanted to kiss him. When he gave up that free throw rebound, I was cursing him out. But then he made that huge block to seal the game for us.”
Wahab’s moment was set up by a late 6-0 Hoyas run that proved decisive. St. John’s led 93-90 before Wahab dunked with 1:32 remaining after grabbing an offensive rebound to cut the Red Storm’s lead to one. Then Donald Carey and Dante Harris each hit a pair of free throws, giving Georgetown a 96-93 lead with nine seconds left. Ewing elected to intentionally foul Greg Williams Jr., who made his first free throw before missing his second. Red Storm forward Isaih Moore snatched the rebound over Wahab and tried to tie the score with a short jumper, but Wahab erased the shot with one second remaining.
Harris then made 1 of 2 free throws at the other end to secure the final margin.
“I feel like I could have blocked out better. That was just a mistake on my part,” Wahab said. “But I’m glad I got the block, though.
“I feel happy my hard work is showing out there. My ability to learn from Coach Ewing is showing. I’m just happy.”
Harris, a freshman point guard, scored a career-high 22 points for Georgetown (3-3, 1-1 Big East), and Jahvon Blair finished with 20 points after a slow start. Carey, whose layup with six seconds left in the second half nearly won the game in regulation, had 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
Moore led St. John’s (5-3, 0-2) with 26 points and 14 rebounds, while guard Posh Alexander added 16 points. Guard Julian Champagnie added 13 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.
A huge Georgetown miscue allowed for overtime in the first place. Wahab seemed to have another game-sealing block that went out of bounds with less than a second left. The Hoyas allowed an inbounds pass to Williams directly under the basket, and he quickly put up a layup that beat the buzzer and forced an extra five minutes.
“The game ain’t over until it’s over,” St. John’s Coach Mike Anderson said. “Georgetown did what they were supposed to do. They protected the home court.
“I didn’t put them in the right position at the right time. When the game was in the waning moments, I thought we could have executed better. It’s a team loss, a tough loss. We were in position to win this game. . . . We just have to learn to finish.”
Georgetown shot 54 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from three-point range, which helped it overcome 17 turnovers and being outrebounded 45-34.
Harris and fellow freshman T.J. Berger each had their best game so far. Harris, who started because senior guard Jalen Harris was out with back spasms, produced his 22-point night after he had scored only 16 total points in five games while averaging 11.6 minutes per game. Berger had played just four minutes this season, but he finished with seven points, including a pair of three-pointers after the Red Storm took a nine-point lead in the second half. The second three tied the score at 60 with 10:57 to play in regulation.
“For the most part, I thought we kept our composure,” Ewing said. “We could have easily let go of the rope once we went down, and even at the end of the game we made so many mistakes to let them tie the game. We didn’t put our head down. Coming into overtime, they went out by five or six, and we still kept our composure, still kept fighting.”
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