St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino against the...

St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino against the Georgetown Hoyas at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke

St. John’s came back from a 14-point deficit in the second half to defeat Georgetown, 63-58, at the Garden on Tuesday before 12,727 fans. The Red Storm (15-3) has now won 10 of its last 11 games – the loss being a one-pointer at Creighton – and is off to a 6-1 start in Big East play. The last time that happened was the 1998-99 season, when the Red Storm went to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

It was an unusual victory in that no St. John’s player had a particularly good game, with the possible exception of Aaron Scott, who had 14 points, nine rebounds and played some tough defense. For example, leading scorer RJ Luis Jr. needed 19 shots to get his 19 points. And once again, while the stats defied winning, the Red Storm still did.

Here are three takeaways from the victory.

1. The sixth man makes a difference.

The biggest thing that has differentiated the Storm from other teams is their effort and energy. The partisan Garden crowd sustained that on Tuesday night. They rose up to fuel St. John’s as it outscored the vastly improved Hoyas (12-5, 3-3) by 15 points in the second half. It showed in the effort categories such as rebounding, with St. John's grabbing 10 more than Georgetown after halftime. The Red Storm has a slew of tough home games left on the schedule – Marquette, Connecticut, Xavier and Creighton – and while they may have all the tools needed to win those games, fan support looks like a difference-maker.

2. Risk and reward must be measured in whether to play Deivon Smith at Seton Hall.

The Storm is clearly a better team with Smith in the lineup, but showed it can win without him on Tuesday when he was sidelined with a right shoulder injury that required a cortisone shot. Smith wants to get back on the court. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said he was 60-70% likely to play Saturday against Seton Hall (6-11, 1-5) at Prudential Center, where the team hasn’t won since 2013-14. The Pirates always play the Storm tough, but Pitino must consider the value of holding him out against a lesser team to further heal until Xavier arrives at the Garden next Wednesday. The Storm can’t afford to lose him for more games. 

3: It’s no time to be satisfied.

St. John’s is in position to start piling up wins and has to do it. Its next four games are against Seton Hall and then three teams it's already beaten once – Xavier, Georgetown and Providence. The Red Storm want to go into the Feb. 4 meeting with No. 7 Marquette at the Garden 10-1 in the Big East and with a full head of steam.

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