The Georgetown men’s basketball team (12-8, 5-2 Big East) will take on the Creighton Blue Jays (14-6, 5-2 Big East) Tuesday at Verizon Center. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 6:30 p.m. and will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
Maddie Vagadori
The Hoyas are coming off a 68-62 loss to the Connecticut Huskies (14-5, 5-2 AAC) Saturday afternoon in Hartford, in the most recent installation of a classic Big East rivalry. Junior forward Reggie Cameron led the way with 13 points for the Hoyas, who suffered through another lackluster shooting performance as a team, converting just 39 percent of their field goals and 29 percent of threes. The Huskies only shot 36 percent from the field but lived at the stripe, making 29-of-36 free throws, in stark contrast to 7-of-8 for the Hoyas.
The Hoyas also committed a number of mental mistakes down the stretch, coughing up costly turnovers that would prove to be their pitfall. After senior guard D’Vauntes Smith Rivera’s jumper with 4:32 remaining, the Blue and Gray would not score for the rest of the game and turned the ball over three times in the final minutes.
“We came down to the end and we made some bad plays,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “It’s nothing other than that. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to win at the end.”
The Hoyas had just knocked off No.7 Xavier (17-2, 5-2 Big East) Tuesday night in Cincinnati, but could not channel any of that late-game execution against the Huskies, who managed to fluster the Blue and Gray into end-of-clock fouls, out-of-control offensive sequences, and poor shot selection. Between Smith-Rivera and sophomore guard Tre Campbell, who was coming off a career-high 21 points against Xavier, the Hoyas’ starting backcourt shot just 6-of-22 from the field.
Creighton is coming off an impressive 72-64 home win over then-No.18 Butler. Sophomore guard Maurice Watson Jr., who leads the Blue Jays with 14.0 ppg and 6.5 apg, scored 20 points and dished out six assists in the victory. The Blue Jays have also seen significant contributions from senior center Geoffrey Groselle, who averages 11.6 ppg and 6.1 rpg, and junior guard Isaiah Zierden, who averages 12.4 ppg and 2.7 apg.
In the Hoyas and Blue Jays’ previous meeting on January 5, Watson led the way with 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting as Creighton prevailed, 79-66. Smith-Rivera scored 17 points for Georgetown, who missed six of their last eight shots and turned it over three times after cutting the Blue Jays’ lead down to 63-60 with 6:55 remaining.
After Tuesday’s game, the Hoyas return to action Saturday at 8:00 p.m. against the No.10 Providence Friars (17-3, 5-2), also at Verizon Center. Creighton will also play that Saturday at 8:00 p.m., against the Seton Hall Pirates (13-6, 3-4 Big East) in Omaha.
