Georgetown had seen this movie before and the Hoyas didn’t exactly enjoy the ending.
In their only other meeting with Marquette this season, back on Jan. 2, the Hoyas had sprinted to a 16-point lead at the half after holding the Golden Eagles to just 20 first-half points. It was Marquette’s lowest offensive output of the season to that point.
But Marquette pulled itself off the mat that day and came back with a vengeance in the second half to rally for a four-point victory over the Hoyas.
So when Georgetown found itself up 16 points at halftime of their BIG EAST Tournament opener with Marquette Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, while also holding the Golden Eagles to just 14 first-half points, a new low for the season for Marquette, the Hoyas weren’t about to let history repeat itself.
So they scripted an entirely different ending this around as the eighth-seeded Hoyas built leads as large as 21 points in the second half as they cruised to a never-in-doubt 68-49 victory. While No. 9 Marquette (13-14) became the first team to exit the BIG EAST Tournament, the Hoyas (10-12) move on to face top-seeded Villanova in Thursday’s quarterfinal opener at noon.
“Ever since we came out of the Covid pause I feel like we’ve been a different team,” said Hoyas head coach Patrick Ewing, who logged his first BIG EAST Tournament victory as head coach. “We’ve had some setbacks, we lost to Connecticut big, but we made improvements and I think one (big) reason (for their recent success) is Chudier Bile. He came out today and he was a man on the boards, especially in the first half. That was the reason why we won. We did a great job on the glass and then our defense was superb. We did a great job on their bigs, keeping their guys out of the paint.”
With unanimous BIG EAST All-Freshman team pick Dawson Garcia saddled with foul trouble in the first half for Marquette (he picked up his third foul with 3:40 to go before halftime) coupled with some abysmal shooting by the Golden Eagles (they were 6-for-28 for 22.7% and just 1-for-8 on threes) in the first 20 minutes, the Hoyas were able to build a 32-14 lead at the break. The defensive effort turned in by Georgetown was an inspired one as the 14 points the Golden Eagles managed was their lowest total since they scored 15 against Wisconsin in 2014.
“I feel like this is the best defensive game we’ve played all season,” said Hoyas sophomore big man Qudus Wahab, who finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. “They scored (only) 14 points in the first half. We were rebounding, the defensive rebounding was good. We were able to keep our lead and win by a lot.”
Georgetown, the top rebounding outfit in the BIG EAST, out-boarded Marquette, 46-32, which effectively prevented the Golden Eagles from mounting any serious comeback challenge in the second half. The Golden Eagles did try and make a run right after halftime when they used a 7-0 spurt to trim the Georgetown lead to 36-25 with 15:19 to play. But the Hoyas promptly answered with a 7-0 run of their own to bang the lead back to 43-25 and Marquette never got any closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
Senior Jahvon Blair led the Hoyas with a game-high 20 points off the bench, Jamarko Pickett had eight points and eight boards and Bile finished with five points and eight rebounds. Contributions came from everywhere.
“Jahvon did a great job of not only scoring but facilitating. He made some great plays for us,” Ewing said. “It was a total team effort. Everyone did something positive to help us win. Don Carey (8 points, 6 rebounds) was solid, Jamarko Pickettt didn’t shoot the ball particularly well but he did a great job defensively and the big fella, Qudus, played great for us. (But) he got tired in the second half and I had to curse him out and tell him, ‘Man, get your butt back on defense.’ But it was a total team effort.”
Ewing who knows a thing or two about quality Georgetown big men likes what he sees from Wahab.
“Q has been great for us,” Ewing said. “This year he’s a man. We need him to dominate on the offensive end and the defensive end and he’s working towards that. To me, by the time he leaves here, whenever that is, hopefully it’s two more years, he’s going to be the best big in the country.”
So how big a win was it for Ewing to finally get that first tournament victory as a head coach?
“It’s huge. This is my first as a coach,” he said. “This is my fourth year now and we had opportunities. Last year (in the BIG EAST Tournament) we were up on St. John’s at halftime and then wasn’t able to get it done in the second half. (Tonight) we didn’t falter. We kept on fighting and we were able to take the game over.”
The Hoyas now have a quick turnaround when they take on a wounded Villanova team in the quarterfinals at noon Thursday. The Wildcats will be without both Collin Gillespie (torn MCL) and Justin Moore (sprained ankle) for Thursday’s game. Villanova has won the past three conference tournament crowns.
“Right now we’re going to enjoy this win,” Ewing said. “We’re going to go back and eat, they’re going to shower and (then) we’ll watch film on Villanova. Then tomorrow we’ll get on the bus and get over here. That’s just the way it is in the tournament. You play and if you win you play again. We’re looking forward to this. We’ve taken the first step in our journey and we have more steps that we want to take.”