Brutal. Just brutal.
The Georgetown Hoyas fell at home to the Creighton Bluejays by a score of 91-87 in a demoralizing fashion at Capital One Arena. This loss drops the Hoyas to 2-4 in Big East play. Ty-Shon Alexander shrugged off his recent road woes and burned the Hoyas from start to finish, dropping 26 points on 50% shooting from the field and 54.5% shooting from three. Davion Mintz found his rhythm in the second half, adding 17 points of his own.
The started off perfectly for Georgetown as Ewing’s squad jumped out to a quick 8-point lead in the first half behind a strong offensive start by Jessie Govan, who finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds, and two blocks. However, Georgetown quickly coughed that lead up and traded points until halftime, going into the locker-room with a one-point lead.
Georgetown struggled to regain the lead in the second half, as Creighton built the lead up to as much as 8-points. Ewing rolled with a lineup of James Akinjo, Jahvon Blair, Jamorko Pickett, Kaleb Johnson, and Govan for most of the 2nd half to bring the Hoyas back. Creighton and Georgetown traded buckets until Akinjo buried a three-point shot to give the Hoyas an 85-83 lead with 2:09 remaining.
All Georgetown needed was a stop. The biggest question going into tonight was whether the Hoyas could stop the Bluejays when it mattered most. The answer was a resounding no. Mitch Ballock drove the ball to the hole and missed a wild lay-up attempt but snagged his miss and kept the possession alive by throwing the ball out to Marcus Zegarowski. Since the Hoya defense collapsed into the paint due to Ballock’s penetration, Jagan Mosely switched from Alexander to Zegarowski. Zegarowski recognized this and swung the ball to Alexander who buried a three to reclaim the lead for the Bluejays.
The Bluejays stymied both Akinjo and McClung’s drive attempts on the next possession. The result was a forced Govan running shot that did not have a prayer at the end of the shot clock. Ballock drained four free throws in a row to ice the game and send the Hoyas down to 2-4 and searching for answers.
This game was so winnable. That’s the frustrating part. Creighton is an inferior opponent on every level to Georgetown and had no business coming into Capital One and winning tonight. Yet it happened. Why?
The Hoya defense was a jumbled mess for a large portion of this game, and it came back to haunt them. Creighton picked apart the Hoya defense in the second half by aggressively pushing the ball off both makes and misses. By doing this, Creighton put Georgetown on its heels which caused them to sag off the three-point line. Georgetown did a poor job of consistently hustling back down on defense, communicating with each other, and manning up immediately. This gave Creighton plenty of opportunities to get good looks from three.
Creighton frustrated Georgetown’s guards the entire game. Akinjo had a brutal night from the field, scoring 6 points on 18% shooting from the field. McClung added 10 points on 36.4% shooting despite only playing 20 minutes. Blair, playing all of his 15 minutes in the second half, only added 3 points on 25% shooting from three. Creighton took away Georgetown’s ability to create dribble penetration, which resulted in numerous stagnant offensive possessions.
Ewing’s rotation selection was highly questionable throughout the game as well. McClung, Georgetown’s hottest offensive player coming into this game, barely saw the court in the 2nd half of the game. Considering how effective McClung had been the previous two games on the offensive end, Ewing’s decision to go with Blair for a prolonged period was curious. The only reasonable explanation is that Ewing did not believe McClung could get it done defensively while Blair could.
Additionally, Ewing subbed out Govan with 4:03 remaining in the 2nd half, hoping that the under-4 official timeout would occur quickly. Instead, the next dead ball occurred at 2:20, resulting in Govan, Georgetown’s best player, sitting on the bench for over 90 seconds down the stretch of a must-win game.
All in all, in a do-or-die situation, Georgetown found a new way to break its fans hearts. There is a serious problem when a program’s fans expect their team to lose close games. Rather than see definitive progress, Hoya fans are watching inconsistency and the same problems rearing their ugly heads. It is great that the Hoyas are finding ways to be competitive, but these close games need to begin to translate to wins. After this performance, this Georgetown team resembles more of a sinking ship than a plane getting ready to take off.
