Charles Nailen/The Hoya Senior center Courtland Freeman goes above the rim for the game-winning dunk. In a rematch of last year’s NIT final, Georgetown got the better of St. John’s, downing the team 71-69 Tuesday night at MC

In the life of Courtland Freeman, a third-year captain with an injury-prone body and the weight of storied Georgetown big men resting on his shoulders, Tuesday was a good day. Senior center Freeman made the winning shot to give Georgetown a 71-69 win over St. John’s, and did it in historic “Hoya Destroya” fashion – with a dunk.

“That’s as good as Courtland Freeman has played in his career,” Esherick said. “He was awesome.”

Georgetown had the ball with the game tied at 69 and 26.1 seconds to play. Sophomore point guard Ashanti Cook held it until eight seconds were left, dribbling around the perimeter, coming around a screen and finally finding Freeman, who dunked it with two hands and only 0.5 seconds on the clock.

Freeman led the Hoyas with 18 points and 12 boards.

“We just took what was open,” Freeman said. “It happened real quick.”

After Freeman’s dunk, St. John’s quickly called a timeout and had the ball at the other end of the court. But the inbound pass was stolen by sophomore forward Brandon Bowman.

Esherick said the final play was designed for Cook to come off a screen and look for several different options. Freeman’s defender, senior forward Grady Reynolds, lunged toward the top of the key where Cook was, leaving him with a clean pass to Freeman.

“It’s not an accident that Ashanti Cook has been involved in three different close games and made the key play in all three,” Esherick said.

Georgetown’s largest lead of the game came with 4:41 to go, when a Bowman drive to the basket resulted in an and-one. But four quick points by Reynolds brought the Red Storm back within one, 65-64. Georgetown tried to drive to the basket twice, but senior guard Gerald Riley missed a layup and Bowman was stripped. Finally, junior swingman Darrel Owens was able to finish a layup with 2:22, making it 67-64.

After both teams missed shots and called several timeouts, St. John’s sophomore guard Elijah Ingram came up with a big three-pointer with 1:09 to play. On the other end, Owens came back with another layup to give Georgetown a two-point lead.

St. John’s sophomore guard Darryll Hill then drove to the basket and dished to the wide-open Reynolds, who jammed it home, tying the game at 69.

The win ends a three-game skid for the Hoyas. The victory over St. John’s, who is 0-5 in the Big East for the first time ever, provides important momentum on the way into Saturday’s matchup with No. 1 Duke. The Blue Devils will be the second number one team Georgetown has faced in ten days after Jan. 14’s loss to then No. 1 Connecticut.

But if Georgetown plays Saturday the way they did Tuesday, they won’t make much headway against Duke.

The same team that proclaimed itself at the beginning of the year to be a perimeter-oriented team shot 3-of-14 from the three-point line in the game and 35.5 percent overall in the first half. Guards Cook and senior Gerald Riley, the team’s leading scorer, combined to go 4-for-19.

Both teams were sloppy in the first half, combining for 17 turnovers. St. John’s was able to get off 11 more shots than the Hoyas in the period, and had 14 offensive boards to Georgetown’s eight.

And as well as Freeman played, he was not enough to defend St. John’s forwards on his own. Reynolds and senior Kyle Cuffe each scored 14, and as a team the Red Storm had 19 offensive rebounds to the Hoyas’ 11. St. John’s did not always help itself, often missing the easy layup or putback, but the Hoyas were up to the same thing on their end.

“I’ve been concerned all year with inside defense and inside offense,” Esherick said.

Georgetown did do a good job of reaching the free throw line, where they were 20-for-23, and shot better in the second half at 54.2 percent.

“I thought offensively we were much more patient in the second half than we were in the first half,” Esherick said.

Junior swingman Darrel Owens, playing on his birthday, had another strong game for the Hoyas, finishing with 15 on 6-for-9 shooting. Midway through the second half, Cook threw a court-long pass to Owens on a breakaway, but the Red Storm defender, freshman Lamont Hamilton, went up hard to foul Owens, knocking him out of midair to the court. Owens left the game and went to the locker room with numbness in his shoulder, but came back with 6:05 left. Hamilton was charged with an intentional foul.

“I have no idea [what happened],” Owens said. “My back was turned, and next thing I knew I was on the ground.”

Freshman guard Ray Reed saw 26 minutes, as Riley was limited by foul trouble. He scored seven.

Georgetown will tip off against Duke on Saturday at 2 p.m. at CI Center.