Georgetown was outrebounded and slightly outshot by St. John’s tonight, but the Hoyas had the advantage where it mattered: in the win column.

The 64-52 game ended in favor of Georgetown, the No. 11 team in the country, but the 14th-place Red Storm (10-17, 4-11 Big East) threatened the Hoyas (23-4, 13-3) well into the second half. With the win, Georgetown moves ahead of Louisville for the top spot in the Big East standings by half a game.

Georgetown’s victory tonight was nothing like their 74-42 blowout of the Red Storm four weeks ago in New York. According to Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III, however, expecting another lopsided win like that would have been underestimating St. John’s.

“Our guys know all their guys. They know they’re good players,” he said. “That night, that was just a blip. The stars aligned themselves properly for us that night and things fell in line that night. . I would have liked for it to be like the last time, but I don’t think anyone had any visions of that happening. They play hard.”

In fact, St. John’s 45.8 field-goal percentage on the game is the third highest that a Big East opponent has mustered against Georgetown’s nation-leading defense this season. The Red Storm also edged the Hoyas on the boards 28-24.

“I feel like it’s been a long time since someone’s shot 46 percent against us,” Thompson said after the game. “They got too many quality shots.”

For the Red Storm, competing with the Hoyas was a matter of making good plays, keeping up their energy and slowing down Georgetown’s offense, according to Head Coach Norm Roberts.

St. John’s adjusted their defense from man-to-man to zone following the first timeout, after Georgetown sophomore forward DaJuan Summers reeled off a trey, a layup and a rebound to start the game. The zone has allowed overmatched teams to keep up with the Hoyas all year, and it worked just as well for the Red Storm for a good while. St. John’s kept Georgetown’s lead in single-digits through the first half, and by halftime the Hoyas had just a 27-23 edge.

After his opening outburst, Summers struggled with a cold snap during the rest of the first half. He made only one of his eight following attempts, which included two slam dunks gone bad. Instead of letting it get to him, however, Summers regrouped and took the advice of his coach to heart.

“I was like, `Hey man, keep playing. They’re going on to the next play,'” Thompson said. “You can’t let one botched play, one poor play, one play where you get a bad bounce affect the next five minutes.”

“It just happens sometimes, you know?” Summers said about the missed dunks. “You just can’t dwell on it. . Coach was telling me, just think about the next play. I think I did that. If I would have worried about those dunks, I probably would have took myself out of the game completely.”

After halftime, Summers connected on 4-of-5 shots. He would go on to total a game-high 21 points, including five three-pointers.

It took a while, however, for Georgetown to heat up in the second half. During the first five and a half minutes, the Hoyas were dunked on four times, by three different Red Storm players. With 12:23 minutes left, St. John’s was just one point behind, 40-39.

But the Hoyas started to click when it counted. A 17-5 Georgetown run, starting at that point and lasting until the clock read 3:50, put the win out of reach for St. John’s. During that stretch, there was a point when St. John’s was held scoreless for over five minutes.

Georgetown’s shooting also improved in the second half, as the team’s field-goal percentage shot up from 37.5 in the first half to 52.4 in the second. Contributing to that improvement was senior center Roy Hibbert, who scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half.

“I think the key was particularly in the second half, I told Roy at halftime, let’s be more aggressive and get open,” Thompson said. “The first half, they were being extremely physical with him, and he just needed to be a little more assertive at times with getting the ball. We had to get it in to him more and play it off that as we always do.”

For Hibbert, who has always shown a zeal for developing his game, aggressiveness is an area where he wants to improve, saying, “I need to do that from the start without Coach telling me that.”

Aggressiveness is something that the Hoyas will need now, as the season only gets tougher from here. Georgetown has a contest at fifth-place Marquette and a final regular-season game against second-place Louisville before it’s time for the Big East Tournament.

When asked what he will do to prepare Georgetown for their away game at fellow Jesuit school Marquette, a tongue-in-cheek Thompson responded, “prayer.”

The Hoyas and the Golden Eagles match up Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Bradley Center, where Georgetown has only played once. The game will be televised on CBS.

Hoya Notes:

– Junior swingman Anthony Mason Jr. led the Red Storm with 12 points on the game. Teammate D.J. Kennedy, a 6-foot-6 freshman forward, pulled down a game-high seven rebounds.

– Georgetown guards Jonathan Wallace and Jessie Sapp had four assists each.

– A crowd of 9,018 fans showed up for the 9 p.m. game at Verizon Center.

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