Two overtime victories on the road can take a toll on a team, and St. John’s showed signs of fatigue early on in their Sunday matchup against Georgetown on Jan. 28. In a narrow victory of 57-56, Coach Joe Tartamella and his squad finished the job as tough as it started. 

The Johnnies come off a road trip to Seton Hall that ended in an overtime loss, and a road trip to DePaul that featured a double overtime win, and a historic performance from senior guard Unique Drake. 

Drake finished with 36 points last Thursday against DePaul after the team finished off the game, 83-77. With credit due to a tough Georgetown defense that double-teamed her for all four quarters in Sunday afternoon contests, she was held to only 18 points. 

“If they’re doubling me then somebody else is open on the court. Just keeping my head up and finding the opportunity,” Drake said after the game on her efforts in creating a team win for the Red Storm.  

The two founding teams of the Big East Conference met for the 73rd time on Sunday, in front of a large crowd cheering them on in recognition for National Women and Girls in Sports Day on Feb. 7. 

The game featured solid performances from senior Ber’Nyah Mayo and sophomore Tara Daye. The pair of guards totaled 18 points,13 rebounds and seven assists. Their execution on the floor was noticeable from the jump as Georgetown took interest in locking down the two St. John’s captains, Drake and graduate forward Jillian Archer.

Mayo fought a gritty battle for all four quarters and opened up the floor for scoring opportunities early on. Coupled with Daye’s three steals, the two showed great amounts of energy and technique up and down the court, helping the team convert 29 points from turnovers and fast breaks combined. Although lacking on the stat sheet, sophomore guard Jailah Donald’s performance aided St. John’s to score 11 second-chance points.  

“When [Donald’s] playing, we’re a lot better,” Tartamella said. “There were plays defensively today that we had that I was pretty blown away by watching it in real time.” 

Similarly to the final result, the Red Storm inched their way to a 23-22 lead going into the second half. Tartamella said he purposefully kept the team in the locker room for a few more minutes during halftime to get their minds off the fatigue that plagued them to score only 12 points, and shoot 0-5 from the three point line. The method proved to work, as their third-quarter performance of 25 points was the difference maker in pulling ahead in the second half. 

“I’m glad it didn’t go into overtime,” Tartamella noted after the game. “I think we’ve had a couple ones that have gassed us a little bit in this run. It was a great effort from our players. I’m proud of them for being as resilient as they’ve been.” 

Resilience was promptly shown in the second half as two steals quickly opened up the floor for the Red Storm allowing them to take off from there. Archer anchored the team down in the paint, earning herself a few trips to the line. The senior finished with 11 points, two steals, and four rebounds. 

“We were able to move the ball, which definitely helped us a lot and made the defense shift,” Archer said after the game. “It was just team basketball at the end of the day.” 

The fourth quarter’s opening was squandered by a foul call on Archer that brought her to three for the night. Georgetown went on a 10-0 run to narrow the lead, in part to senior guard Kelsey Ransom’s effort to keep the Hoyas at play. She finished the night with 19 points and seven assists. With a Red Storm offense struggling to make critical free throws and three-point shots down the stretch, Ransom capitalized and drilled the last made three in an effort to close the final score. 

At the conclusion of the Sunday afternoon contest, the Red Storm improved to 13-9 on the season and 7-3 in the Big East Conference. They will continue their home series against Xavier on Jan. 31 at Carnesecca Arena.