After the game, Georgetown Coach John Thompson described the level of Big East competition, “Each game in our league is big.”

The men of St. John’s (8-9, 2-4) made a strong impression on the 11^th ranked Georgetown Hoyas (14-3, 4-2) by taking a 13-5 lead at 12:18. Freshman Moe Harkless led the attack with seven points.

The Hoyas ended the Red Storm advantage by scoring 12 unanswered points to take a 17-13 lead. The first half concluded with Georgetown leading, 25-19.

Each team had identical statistics in several categories during the first half, field goals, turnovers, assists and blocks.

The Red Storm cut the deficit to three, 28-25, at 17:06 of the second half on a layup by Harkless. Each move by St. John’s was met by a stronger response from the visiting Hoyas who netted the next nine points to again raise the lead to double digits, 37-25.

St. John’s made a final run to slash the advantage to three, 48-45, with 6:36 on the clock. The Hoyas used their superiority in size and experience to crush St. John’s, 69-49, by outscoring them, 21-4 to conclude the contest.

Assistant Coach Mike Dunlap, running the games for the recovering Steve Lavin of St. John’s, gave credit to Georgetown forward Hollis Thompson for the defeat, “In the second half, Hollis [Thompson] got loose on us. He made the difference.”

Thompson, the leading three-point shooter in the Big East, uncharacteristically missed all his shots from the floor in the first half. In the second half, he netted all five of his shots from beyond the arc and both from closer range. He scored all 20 of his points in the second half.

Dunlap was fielding a team that played only seven men, five of them freshmen, “I think our resources are a little shallow to keep that [defense] up over the second half.”

Other factors also were in Georgetown’s control. The outrebounded the Red Storm (42-34); they doubled the number of field goals scored by St. John’s in the second stanza; they prevented the Red Storm from scoring a three-pointer; they received 23 from their bench to only seven from St. John’s.

According to Georgetown Coach John Thompson III the change came at a certain time, “Once we picked up our energy level, the offense improved and the defense improved.”

In the second game, the Marquette Golden Eagles (12-6, 3-2) edged the St. John’s Red Storm (11-7, 3-2), 63-55. The game was tied five times and the lead changed hands on 11 occasions.

Marquette was ahead by double figures with eight minutes left in the game, but the Red Storm cut the advantage to four points, 59-55, with 57 seconds remaining. The Golden Eagles scored the final four points to earn the win.

After the contest, St. John’s Coach Kim Barnes Arico commented, “When we bring our A game, we are capable of beating anyone in the country…But when we don’t bring our A game, anyone is capable of doing the same to us.”

Temple, thus far, has compiled one of its best early season marks. Currently ranked #16/17 in national polls, The Owls defeated top 5 ranked Villanova on December 13. Two of its three losses came at the hands of ranked teams. Georgetown edged Temple, 46-45, and the Owls were blown out by Kansas, then #1 ranked. Its only other defeat was by the St. John’s Red Storm.

Fordham, on the other hand, has started horribly. Its head coach, Derek Whittenburg, was fired after coaching the first five games of the season. The slow start followed a 3-25 record in the 2008-9 season. The current head coach, Jared Grasso, the youngest head coach in Division I men’s basketball, has led the team to only one victory in 12 contests.

The background of the two teams seemed totally irrelevant as they battled evenly during the first half. The score was knotted three times and the lead changed hands five times during the first 10 minutes. A layup by Fordham’s Chris Gaston at 9:25 gave Fordham its final lead of the game. The half ended with the visitors leading, 22-19. The stats for the teams were very similar. Both shot below 30% from the floor. Each only netted two treys and grabbed 18 boards.

Temple’s three more free throws than Fordham were the difference between the two. Veteran coach Fran Dunphy spoke of his team’s poor start, “I have no idea why we start so slow. We had decent looks in the first half, but we didn’t make them.”

Temple adjusted well in the second half, and began the period with a 16-4 scoring run to take a 38-23 lead with 13:45 remaining. Temple continued its domination of the contest, raising its advantage to 23 points. Fordham closed the game outscoring the visitors 14-8, but it was too little, too late. Temple’s shooting from the floor was outstanding. The Owls netted 16 of 24 attempts, 7 of 9 from beyond the arc. Dunphy credited his bench players, who outscored Fordham 26-12, for creating the separation during the second half. Sophomore Scootie Reynolds, averaging less than two points per game, scored all 12 of his points in the second half on four of five from three point range. Grasso talked of his team’s inability to play effectively for 40 minutes,

“We played 22-23 minutes, and ran out of gas.” Grasso, as he often does, spoke of the youth of his freshmen dominated squad, “We showed how young we are. In the second half, they made more shots, and we didn’t respond. Sometimes, you see the difference between upperclassmen and freshmen.” Grasso did speak very positively of the effort his players make, “They’re playing hard. The effort is there. I’m not disappointed.”

Freshman Chris Gaston of the Rams, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, continued his double digit average in both categories with 16 points and 10 rebounds.