NASSAU, Bahamas — St. John’s can kiss its national ranking goodbye for now.

A trip that started with such promise ended in dismal fashion.

A step slow and unable to hit from long range, St. John’s fell to Georgia on Sunday, ending this weekend in The Bahamas on the wrong side of a 66-63 slugfest.

Coupled with the double-overtime loss to No. 13 Baylor on Thursday, this was not how the Johnnies expected this trip to go.

They were beaten to loose balls, the offense was stagnant and the defensive rebounding was again a problem. They were outscored by eight points in the paint and lost the rebounding battle by three.

Coach Rick Pitino didn’t believe the Red Storm playing three games in four days was a factor, especially since Georgia lost to Marquette on Saturday.

“They just wanted it more than us,” senior wing Aaron Scott said. “They out-physicaled us. They got to every loose ball, every rebound. It just felt like they wanted it more than us.

“It’s very upsetting. That’s a good Georgia team, but I feel like we were better. We didn’t come out and compete.”

This was a dreadful offensive performance. The Johnnies shot 2-for-19 from 3-point land and 31.1 percent from the field overall. They had a season-low five assists. Kadary Richmond managed just three points on 1-for-8 shooting along with three turnovers and an ineffective Deivon Smith (four points on 1-for-7 shooting) was benched for the final 13:18.

Pitino said he wanted more shooting out of the guard spot. At one point late in the second half, it looked like Smith was going to go back in, but Pitino sent him back to the bench.

“We had a difficult day offensively. Our shots were not going down,” Pitino said. “Defensively, we did not play really well. We kept giving them their strong hands, but they deserved the victory. They made plays at the end of the game, and it was disappointing.”

St. John’s seemed to finally have control after trailing by nine early in the second half, up three on the strength of a 19-7 run. But Richmond threw the ball away at midcourt, sparking a 10-0 Georgia run. St. John’s did briefly go ahead on two Zuby Ejiofor free throws with 3:02 to go, but Georgia (4-1) reeled off the next five points.

St. John’s did get the ball back after a steal, down two. Fittingly on this lost afternoon, Simeon Wilcher dribbled the ball out of bounds with 30.3 seconds left.

St. John’s had the ball down three with 10.2 seconds left, but RJ Luis lost the ball as the Johnnies tried to set up a game-tying 3-pointer.

Ejiofor led St. John’s (5-2) with 22 points and eight rebounds and Luis added 13 points.

“We just got to step our game up,” Scott said.

The trip started so well, St. John’s building an 18-point first-half lead against Baylor. It couldn’t finish out that game, then after overwhelming Virginia on Friday night, didn’t have it against Georgia.

The Johnnies will have a lot of time to group. They are off until hosting Harvard on Saturday, then get another seven days off before Kansas State comes to Queens.

“As long as we play hard, I’m not going to judge where we are now. I’m going to judge where we’re at the end,” Pitino said. “As long as we play hard, fight, try to win games, I think we’ll be okay. We’re certainly not a great team, but we’re a pretty good team, and Georgia beat us tonight by just making shots when we didn’t make shots in a close game.”