NASSAU, BAHAMAS — St. John's can say goodbye to the national rankings.
The journey that started with such a promise ended in tragedy.
St. John's, a step behind and unable to attack from long range, lost to Georgia on Sunday, and this weekend's game in the Bahamas ended with a poor score of 66-63.
Coupled with Thursday's double-overtime loss to No. 13 Baylor, this trip was not what Johnny's team expected.
After falling behind by nine points early in the second half, St. John's went on a 20-7 run to take a three-point lead and appeared to finally be in control. However, Kadary Richmond threw the ball away in the middle of the court, and Georgia won 10-0.
St. John's briefly took the lead on two free throws by Zuby Ejiofor with 3:02 left, but Georgia scored the next five points. St. John's got the ball back on a steal down two, but Simeon Wilcher dribbled the ball out of bounds with 30.3 seconds left.
St. John's had a horrible offensive performance, making 2 of 20 3-pointers and shooting 31.1 percent from the field overall.
Richmond only scored three points on 1-of-8 shooting. Ejiofor led St. John's with 22 points and eight rebounds, and RJ Lewis added 13 points.
St. John's spent most of the first half sleepwalking. I was a step slow and lost 50-50. He couldn't take a single 3-point shot, and all nine missed. It was -7 on glass and -10 on paint. Richmond and Smith totaled just six points on 2-of-8 shooting.
In fact, the Red Storm shot 30 percent from the field and only had two assists, and were lucky to only trail by four points.
Georgia's 10 turnovers helped, as did Johnny's 14-of-15 shooting from the free throw line.
