‘Nova Hangover: Creighton Leaves Hoyas Searching for Answers

Any good feelings left over from that big time upset over #17 Villanova are gone. While it was snowing in Omaha, the Bluejays were scorching hot all afternoon as they handed Georgetown a 13-point loss by a score of 82-69. After a rocky start, Creighton blitzed Georgetown’s hapless defense, shooting 51.8% from the field. Martin Krampelj dominated the game by dropping in 22 points and hauling in 10 rebounds.

The only positive emerging from this contest was the play of Jahvon Blair, who poured in 16 points for the Hoyas, all in the second half. Blair was the sole player to reach double-digits in scoring for Ewing’s squad. Jessie Govan, coming off one of his best performances of the year against ‘Nova, only scored 9 points on 4-8 from the field. James Akinjo added 7 points and 8 assists.

Well this game got off to a real hot start! The Hoyas looked like they were suffering from the world’s worst hangover as the Bluejays stormed out to a quick 8-0 lead. Davion Mintzcontinued his business of terrorizing the Hoyas by nailing his first three-point shot and torching Mac McClung for a vicious slam dunk.

After a quick time-out by Patrick Ewing, Georgetown tightenedthings up on defense, but still lacked any cohesion and rhythm. The Hoyas struggled completing entry passes and simply just handling the ball. Thankfully for Georgetown, Creighton’s motion offense decided to play the game “Anything you can do, I can do better” and match Georgetown’s sloppiness. Both teams combined for 10 turnovers before the under-12 timeout.

The Hoyas “stormed” back by answering with a 7-0 run themselves, punctuated by a wide-open Mac McClung three-pointer. The play slowly began to pick up as Ewing swapped out the starting lineup for the bench mob. Greg Malinowski contributed to the Hoya comeback immediately by hitting two shots from deep with the second giving Georgetown its first leadof the day at 22-21.

Then Kaleb Joseph entered the game and decided he had seen enough. Joseph, a senior who averages 4.2 points per game, propelled the Bluejays to a 10-0 run by nailing a step-in jump shot and two three-pointers. The Hoyas struggled to respond as Creighton extended the run to 14-2. 

Josh LeBlanc’s hustle helped spark Georgetown in clawing back before the intermission. Capitalizing on a missed call by the officials, LeBlanc went airborne and tipped in a missed shot (it should’ve been rim interference, but we won’t talk about that). LeBlanc took a hard fall and was in clear pain on the court. The refs called a foul on Mitch Ballock and that led to Kaleb Johnson converting a strong post move to give the Hoyas the rare 4-point possession.

Marcus Zegarowski buried another three-point shot for Creighton and then assisted on a Martin Krampelj dunk to give the Bluejays a 12-point lead. Georgetown concluded the first half with some positive momentum by embarking on a 6-0 run. Jagan Mosely negated what would have been an and-1 opportunity for Ty-Shon Alexander by taking a charge with 2.8 seconds remaining.

Any fans hoping to see a Georgetown defense that consistently defends the three-point line were immensely disappointed. The Bluejays knocked down 8-15 (53.3%) from behind the arc and 6-27 from the field (59.3%). Numerous players were guilty of overhelping on drives and simply losing track of their man. That is simply inexcusable against a team that makes a living from beyond the arc.

The second half did not start much better at all as Creighton opened up a 50-35 lead on the Hoyas. Ewing pulled ‘Mackinjo’ from the game after James turned the ball over (which led to a Creighton transition three) and McClung forced up one himself. 

Georgetown’s defense offered up close to zero resistance so Ewing, out of desperation, switched to a 2-3 zone after the under-16 timeout. This seemingly helped Georgetown inspire a moment of hope as Creighton slowly lost some of its rhythm. Jahvon Blair hit a deep three-pointer and was fouled on his next attempt to cut Creighton’s lead to 10 points. Samson Frolingturned the ball over by travelling while driving to the hoop, giving the Hoyas a chance to cut the lead to single digits. But Trey Mourning missed a wide open three and then fouled Joseph to give him a three-point play on the other end.

Georgetown continued to battle back though. Jessie Govan came back into the game and immediately cut the lead to 9 points (59-50). After securing a key stop, the Hoyas got Govan the ball again in the post, but Ballock swatted it with some authority.After that, it was over. Creighton continued to pepper the Hoyas from deep, but Georgetown could not seem to get out of its own way by putting Creighton into the bonus early and continuing to foul.

Disappointing is probably the best word to describe this loss. There was so much optimism and excitement surrounding the team after upsetting Villanova this past week. It is natural to feel good about yourself after beating a top-tier team, but this effort and performance was abysmal. Ewing needs to figure out a way to get his squad to consistently play solid defense night in and night out. The Hoyas’ defense was superb against Villanova but was invisible this afternoon.

All in all, just a brutal afternoon for the Hoyas. To put things in perspective, Ewing has greatly exceeded expectations heading into the season. Remarkably, the Hoyas still hold 5^th place in the Big East despite only being 6-8 in conference play. Priority number one moving forward ought to be avoiding the Wednesday night play-in round of the Big East Tournament. To do that, Georgetown most likely needs to go at least 2-2 in its remaining four games against DePaul (twice), Seton Hall, and Marquette. Doable? Yes. A sure thing? No. 

But for now, it’s back to the drawing board.