By Dylan Butler
With a self-imposed ban on postseason play, the Red Storm is making its final five games its playoffs. And on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, the Johnnies not only upset Georgetown University, 76-67 but may have knocked the Hoyas off the NCAA tournament bubble.Missere, the former walk-on turned scholarship player, finished with the first double-double of his career (10 points and 10 rebounds) and was one of six St. John's players to score in double figures.St. John's (9-14, 3-10 Big East) snapped a four-game losing streak that included back-to-back defeats by a combined three points. It was only the Johnnies third win in its last 12 games.”I know we can do this every night, we can play with any team in the country but we have to want it,” Missere said. “We can't go out there cocky, we have to be scrappy and get all the loose balls for 40 minutes. We can't rely on talent. We need all five guys on the court and the bench.”There were the usual suspects for St. John's – Daryll Hill led St. John's with 20 points and Lamont Hamilton added 10 points. Starters Dexter Gray and Eugene Lawrence had 12 and 10 points, respectively. But it was the role players, Missere and Ryan Williams, who proved to be the difference.Missere came off the bench and, with Hamilton mired in foul trouble, played a solid 25 minutes. Williams, whose nickname is 'Special FX' because of his dunking prowess, stepped out and hit three huge 3-pointers, taking pressure off Hill, Hamilton and Lawrence.The former Cardozo star knocked down his first with 11:16 left in the first half to put the Red Storm in front, 19-12. Two minutes later, he knocked down his second trey and after throwing down an alley-oop from Lawrence, he buried a 3-pointer from in front of the Georgetown bench with the shot clock winding down.”I was just wide open. You have to have confidence,” Williams said. “We shoot everyday and I beat Daryll and them yesterday shooting threes so I knew I could hit it.””You cheated,” Hill quipped.St. John's threatened to make this game a laughter early, leading 43-26 when walk-on Otoja Abit out of Archbishop Molloy came in for a rare 39-second stretch.But as big as his offensive contribution was – he finished with a career-high 14 points – Williams made his biggest play on the defensive end in the second half. After Lawrence got beat off the dribble by Ashanti Cook, Williams came to help and rejected Cook's layup attempt.The Red Storm went down the floor and Hill knocked down a corner 3-pointer while getting fouled by Cook. Hill's free throw put the Johnnies in front, 51-35. Williams then added a 3-point play of his own to give the Red Storm its largest lead of the game, 19, with 13:57 left.”What Ryan did blocking that shot when it looked like they were going to go and score, that's a game winning play,” St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. “We've come close to making those plays but haven't finished them off and in the last two games we've been right there where if we got a block like that, if we got a loose ball like that, we would have been the ones winning three games in a row.”Georgetown (16-8, 8-5) rallied and got within 64-58 on a Cook 3-pointer and Hamilton followed by picking up his fifth and final foul with 2:41 left. The Hoyas pressed, but as was the case for most of the game, broke it with ease and Hill was wrapped up by Cook, an intentional foul, Cook's fifth.Hill knocked down both free throws, Lawrence followed with two more and St. John's went 10-of-14 from the line down the stretch and finished by shooting 84.8 percent from the line. The Johnnies also shot 47.8 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from 3-point range.”They outplayed us today,” said first-year Georgetown coach John Thompson III. “There's no other way to articulate it.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
