The Georgetown men’s basketball team (16-10, 6-7 Big East) will look to extend their winning streak to two games on Saturday afternoon against the Creighton Bluejays (14-13, 5-9 Big East) in Omaha, NE. The Hoyas are coming off their first win against a ranked opponent in Patrick Ewing’s tenure as head coach against No. 17 Villanova (20-7, 11-3 Big East) on Wednesday. Creighton had dropped four games in a row in Big East play before their road win against DePaul (13-12, 5-9 Big East) Wednesday evening, but did knock off Georgetown in DC on Jan. 21, 91-87. The matchup in the heartland tips off at 2:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on FOX, with live stats available at guhoyas.com.
Though Villanova had lost two of their previous three games after starting Big East play 10-0, Wednesday night’s victory feels significant for a Georgetown team that was spanked at Seton Hall (16-10, 7-7 Big East) by 15 a week earlier. Ewing used his whole rotation liberally, as ten Hoyas played eight minutes or more, but the real stars of the night were senior center Jessie Govan and freshman guard Mac McClung. Govan, who went scoreless in the Hoyas’ road loss to ‘Nova on February 3, scored 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds in the win, while McClung had 21 of his own including four 3-pointers, five rebounds, and another four assists. The Hoyas shot 50.9 percent from the field, had 22 bench points, 11 second chance points, and 23 of their 29 made field goals were assisted in the total team effort.
As for the Bluejays, they entered Wednesday night’s tilt with DePaul as desperate as any team in the Big East, having lost four straight and tied for last in the conference standings. All four losses had come by single digits, including two games in overtime. While sophomore guard Ty-Shon Alexander leads a team with five players scoring in double figures, head coach Greg McDermott’s team had struggled scoring of late, not having eclipsed 76 points since their 91-point explosion against the Hoyas in January. The skid ended Wednesday night in Chicago, however, as Creighton took control of the game down the stretch in the first half to go up by 11 entering halftime. Alexander led a crew of five scorers in double digits that included sparingly-used senior guard Connor Cashaw (2.2 points per game), who made the most of his 17 minutes, going 5-of-5 from the field. Overall, the Bluejays shot an efficient 52.8 percent thanks in large part to their work in the paint, where they scored 36 points.
Alexander dominated that January 21 meeting, scoring 26 on 6-of-11 shooting from deep. Junior guard Davion Mintz added 17 for Creighton, who shot 44.8 percent from deep as a team in the back-and-forth battle. Despite Govan’s 22-point, 12-rebound effort, the Hoyas came up short in large part due to their inability to defend at all three levels. The freshman guard duo of McClung and James Akinjo combined to shoot 6-of-22 in the loss, but both seem to have made great strides in their development of late.
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