With Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson drawing the bulk of the attention from St. John's defense, Whittington's scoring and Lubick's hustle were key down the stretch for Georgetown (19-5, 9-4 Big East).
"Coach [John Thompson III] mentioned to us before the game, talking about how people were still praising us after a loss [to Syracuse]," Lubick said. "That's something that we can't look at. We needed to bounce back fast. To come out and grit out a big win was important."
Clark, Markel Starks and Otto Porter all scored 11 points, and Thompson had 10.
Whittington and Lubick played so well that Thompson kept both in the game late, when they would usually be on the bench.
"I thought he made the hustle plays," the coach said of Lubick.
D'Angelo Harrison scored 24 points for the Red Storm (10-15, 4-9).
In other games *
At Seton Hall, Herb Pope scored 19 points, including four free throws in the final 10 seconds, and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead Seton Hall (17-8, 6-7 Big East) to a 73-66 victory over Pittsburgh (15-11, 4-9).
* At Michigan, Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 15 points, helping No. 22 Michigan (19-7, 9-4 Big Ten) remain unbeaten at home with a 70-61 win over Illinois. Brandon Paul's 21 points led the Illini (16-9, 5-7).
* At Purdue, Robbie Hummel scored a season-high 27 points as Purdue (16-9, 6-6 Big Ten) snapped Northwestern's (15-9, 5-7) three-game winning streak with an 87-77 victory.
* At Virginia Tech, Dorian Finney-Smith scored 17 points, including a tip-in with 1.8 seconds left, to lift Virginia Tech (14-11, 3-7 ACC) past Boston College (8-17, 3-8), 66-65.
* At Oregon State, Terrence Ross had 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead Washington (17-8, 10-3 PAC-12) to a 75-72 win over the Beavers (15-10, 5-8). The Huskies went back into a tie for first place in the conference with California.
