The Georgetown men’s basketball team (13-9, 3-8 Big East) fell to No. 6 Xavier (21-3, 9-2 Big East) in overtime on Saturday evening. Senior guard Trevon Bluiett led the Musketeers with 31 points. Junior center Jessie Govan had 23 points and nine rebounds, while freshman guard Jamorko Pickett had 21 points and nine boards in the contest.
The game began evenly, as both teams went back and forth for the entirety of the first half, in which no team led by more than five. After scoring only five and seven points in his past two games, respectively, Govan established himself in the post early, dropping 17 points and grabbing six rebounds in the period. With 28 seconds remaining in the half, the Hoyas were up 44-43, however as the clock ran out Bluiett hit a three over the arm of sophomore guard Jagan Mosely to give the Musketeers the 46-44 advantage heading into the locker room.
The second half transpired similarly to the first, as the score remained tight throughout. Georgetown freshman guard Jahvon Blair, after scoring three points in six minutes in the first half, hit four threes and scored 16 points in the second half to bring his total to 19 on the night. With 38 seconds remaining in the game, Pickett hit a pair of free throws to put the Hoyas up four. The Hoyas looked poised to upset the Musketeers, but with 24 seconds to go, Mosely fouled Bluiett on a made three point shot. Bluiett made the free throw to tie the game at 86.
The Hoyas promptly called timeout, but Blair’s last second three point shot fell short, and Georgetown was forced to go to overtime for the fourth time this season. After trading trips to the free throw line to start the extra period, Xavier was able to force two consecutive trips to the charity stripe. The Musketeers made all of their free throws to go up by four and forced Govan to foul out in the process. In an attempt to relive his clutch heroics in Georgetown’s overtime win against St. John’s (11-13, 0-11 Big East), junior forward Marcus Derrickson hit a contested three point shot with less than a minute remaining to cut Xavier’s lead to one. Those would be the last points the Hoyas scored however, as Georgetown was unable to execute down the stretch, and Xavier would have two more successful trips to the free throw line, winning 96-91.
Derrickson scored all five of the Hoyas points in overtime, and finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Despite typically being a deep scoring team, the combination of Govan, Pickett, Blair and Derrickson scored all but nine of the Hoyas points in the game. Starting junior guard/forward Kaleb Johnson and senior guard Jonathan Mulmore finished the game scoreless. The Hoyas shot 44.6 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from the arc, in comparison to 43.5 percent and 36.7 percent for Xavier. Despite being plagued by turnovers this season, the Hoyas only turned the ball over 10 times in the 45 minutes.
With the loss, the Hoyas fall to 3-8 in the Big East, while Xavier continues to chase after No. 1 Villanova (21-1, 8-1 Big East) for the number one spot in the conference. The Hoyas return to action on Tuesday, when they travel to Providence (15-8, 6-4 Big East). The game tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on CBS Sports. Follow @GUVoiceSports for game day updates and breaking news.
