Shamorie Ponds scored 17 points and St. John's beat St. Georgetown 74-73 on Wednesday night in a contentious first round game of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The eighth-seeded Red Storm (14-18) face top-seeded and No. 2 Villanova in Thursday afternoon's quarterfinals.

Bashir Ahmed added 14 while Malik Ellison contributed 11 for St. John's.

L.J. Peak tied a season-high with 24 points for Georgetown (14-18). Rodney Pryor added 17 for the Hoyas.

The game featured hard fouls all night but tensions escalated with 8:35 remaining in the second half when St. John's was up 60-55. St. John's reserve Amar Alibegovic was shoved under the Georgetown hoop from behind by Georgetown's Bradley Hayes and Marcus Derrickson.

After some pushing and shoving, technical were assessed to St. John's coach Chris Mullin and a Georgetown assistant while Alibegovic was given a flagrant-one foul for his hard shove of Peak.

St. John's continued holding the lead but wobbled to the finish.

It was 74-72 when Marcus Lovett missed a short jumper with about a minute left. Hayes split at the line with 41.3 seconds remaining but Ponds missed a drive on St. John's next possession.

With 6.6 seconds left, St. John's appeared to deflect the ball out of bounds and the call stood. Peak missed a layup and Marcus Derrickson missed another attempt at the rim as the buzzer sounded.

St. John's held a 38-34 halftime lead despite missing 17 of its first 22 shots and shooting 30 percent. Marcus Lovett picked up his third foul with 9:08 left but the Red Storm outscored the Hoyas 22-12 the rest of the half.