Julian Champagnie sparks St. John's to road win over Georgetown
Julian Champagnie of St. John's scores the first two points of the contest on a jumper during the first half of an NCAA men's basketball game against Providence at Carnesecca Arena on Tuesday. Credit: James Escher
Julian Champagnie rediscovered his shot and St. John’s rediscovered the win column on Thursday night.
Champagnie erupted for 27 points — turning the page after a four-game slump in which he didn’t reach double figures in scoring and totaled only 31 points — and St. John’s never trailed in a 90-77 Big East victory over struggling Georgetown at McDonough Arena in Washington.
St. John’s (12-9, 4-6 Big East), which had lost six of eight coming into the contest, handed Georgetown (6-14, 0-9) its 10th consecutive loss. It’s only the second time the Red Storm have prevailed in their last 17 road games against the Hoyas.
Champagnie’s slump followed 40 consecutive games of scoring in double figures. In the four-game span, he was 13-for-47 from the floor and shot 2-for-18 from three-point range.
"I was really frustrated . . . I wasn’t helping my team on that end of the floor and felt like I was letting them down," Champagnie said. "That was the biggest thing. I got my team down a bunch of times."
Champagnie made his first shot of the game, shot 9-for-20 overall and tied a career high with six three-pointers. He said of sinking the first three-pointer off a feed from Posh Alexander midway through the first half: "When you’re a shooter, early in the game, you like to see one go down."
Red Storm coach Mike Anderson said he conferred with Champagnie with the message to "be the great player he is."
"He got it going — I knew he would," Anderson said. "He’s a great player and they only stay in a rut for so long. That makes us a different team. It just kind of permeates through our whole basketball team and you could see it in the energy level tonight."
The good performances were everywhere for St. John’s. Joel Soriano had 14 points, shot 6-for-6 and had nine rebounds and four blocked shots. Alexander had 10 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals. Aaron Wheeler added 13 points and Dylan Addae-Wusu had 11.
The Red Storm did a lot of things right, including pushing the game pace to their favored speed, getting 10 offensive rebounds that were converted to 17 points, and making the extra pass to get 21 assists on 35 baskets.
Donald Carey had 23 points and Kaiden Rice added 20 for the Hoyas, but leading scorer Aminu Mohammed finished with four and shot 1-for-13.
St. John’s got baskets from six different players in sprinting out to a 15-6 lead. Champagnie had 11 points as the Red Storm took a 45-38 lead into halftime.
"I feel I felt a little better," Champagnie said. "One game is one game. The ultimate goal was to win. If I played well and we lost, I would be very upset right now. The emotion right now is good. You play well. Your guys are proud of you. That’s how I want to play."
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
