Georgetown Basketball was able to knock off St. John’s on Sunday 97-94 in dramatic fashion, and Dante Harris had a lot to do with the Hoyas victory.
Sunday’s Big East match-up between Georgetown Basketball and the St. John’s Red Storm was a wild one, as the competitive contest did not end in regulation. The Hoyas were able to jump out to an early 12-5 lead with 16:49 remaining, but the Red Storm went on a 13-6 run over the next few minutes and tied the game at 18.
The Hoyas went back and forth with the Red Storm for the remainder of the first half, and when it looked like the Hoyas were on their way to possessing a double-digit lead (after Donald Carey connected on a jumper to give the Hoyas a 37-31 lead with 4:30 left in the opening half), the Red Storm cut Georgetown’s lead to one less than a minute and a half later (thanks to a 7-2 run).
Donald Carey’s made a three-point basket with 1:15 left in half #1 put the Hoyas up by 4, but they were only able to go into halftime with a two-point advantage (because of Julian Champagnie’s two made free throws).
When the second half began, St. John’s was able to flip the script and quickly turn their 42-40 deficit into a 55-46 lead with 15:19 remaining in half #2. However, the Hoyas remained calm over the next few minutes, and with 10:53 to play in the second half, Georgetown was suddenly involved in a tie ball game (60-60).
After Greg Williams Jr. converted a layup to help give the Red Storm an 82-75 advantage with 2:36 left in the contest, it looked like St. John’s was in a great position to walk out of McDonough Arena, with their first Big East victory of the 2020-21 season. However, Georgetown’s play during the remainder of regulation, showed me that the Hoyas desperately did not want to suffer their fourth loss of the season (overall and at home).
The Hoyas quickly erased the 7-point deficit that the Red Storm had handed them and took a two-point lead with under 10 seconds to play. Unfortunately for Georgetown, they were unable to prevent a St. John’s basket with 0.9 seconds remaining, and just like that, the Hoyas and Red Storm were headed to overtime.
The Hoyas had to play from behind for just about the entire extra period, until Donald Carey stepped up and drilled two free throws, to give Georgetown a 94-93 lead with 33 seconds remaining.
Carey went back to the line with 9 seconds to play, to try and extend Georgetown’s lead to three, and he did just that. St. John’s had an opportunity to tie the game at 96 when Greg Williams Jr. missed his second free throw attempt (after the Hoyas decided to intentionally foul him with under 6 seconds to play), and Isaih Moore came down with an offensive rebound, but Qudus Wahab rejected his layup attempt as the clock was winding down, and Donald Carey managed to grab a defensive rebound and get fouled with two seconds to play.
Carey only knocked down one free throw, but the Red Storms’ desperation heave at the buzzer was no good, and the Hoyas came out with a hard-fought 97-94 overtime victory.
Jahvon Blair and Qudus Wahab were tremendous for the Hoyas on Sunday, but the MVP of the contest to me was Dante Harris. The freshman guard was forced to start against St. John’s due to the absence of Jalen Harris (who is currently dealing with back spasms). Dante Harris certainly did not perform like a freshman on Sunday, as he netted 22 points on 6/14 shooting (42.8%), and recorded three rebounds as well.
I am not sure if Patrick Ewing will elect to insert Jalen Harris back into the starting lineup when he is fully healthy, but in this article, I want to examine three reasons why Dante Harris should receive more playing time moving forward.