It was a tale of two halves at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb., as the Georgetown University men’s basketball team (16-11, 7-9 Big East) fell to the Creighton University Bluejays (19-8, 12-4 Big East), 80-69 on Feb. 23.
For the second consecutive game, Georgetown was without star first-year center Thomas Sorber. Sorber was seen on the bench in a boot during the Hoyas’ win against Providence College, suffering from turf toe. First-year forward Caleb Williams, who also missed the Providence game due to concussion protocol, was again unavailable against Creighton.
While their absences proved irrelevant against the Friars, the same couldn’t be said against Creighton, as the Hoyas were out-rebounded 47-39 and 13-8 on the offensive glass. Creighton star center Ryan Kalkbrenner and forward Jamiya Neal combined for 20 boards, with Kalkbrenner also tallying 4 blocks.
In what has become a trend for the season, Georgetown came out energized to begin the game. Graduate guard Micah Peavy started the scoring with a 3-pointer, before sophomore guard Malik Mack scored 5 points in just over a minute of play.
Creighton kept within striking distance, but the Mack-Peavy duo continued to score in droves. Ultimately, they combined to record the first 20 points for Georgetown.
Junior guard Jayden Epps and sophomore forward Jordan Burks got involved by draining back-to-back threes, extending the Hoyas’ lead to 7.
A perfect trip to the line by Creighton guard Steven Ashworth and a layup by Neal cut the Bluejays’ deficit to 3. But Peavy and Mack struck again, and scored the next 8 points for Georgetown to open their lead up to 9.
Kalkbrenner then missed the back end of his free throws and Epps sank a jumper in the paint, widening the Creighton deficit to double-digits. The lead of 10, however, would be the largest of the game for the Hoyas. Neal and Epps traded buckets until the lead was down to 7, and with just under four minutes left in the half, the tides turned.
Burks grabbed the back of Creighton forward Jasen Green’s jersey while attempting to corral a missed jumper by Neal. Green hit the floor hard, and after review, the referees assessed Burks a Flagrant 1 foul. Green connected on only one of his two free throws, but Kalkbrenner scored when Creighton got possession back, cutting Georgetown’s lead to 4.
Ashworth then proceeded to light up the Hoyas’ defense. He scored in the paint to make it a one-possession game, then drained a three after an Epps layup to put the Bluejays within 1. Mack got a bucket in the paint, but Ashworth responded with another deep three to knot things up at 42-42. He would lead Crieghton with 20 points for the game.
Georgetown missed two threes before Peavy contested Kalkbrenner on a drive to the rim and fouled the big man. Kalkbrenner calmly hit both free throws, and Creighton entered the locker room for halftime with a 2-point lead.
Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott must have made some adjustments during the break, as the Bluejays came out firing to begin the second half. Getting contributions from every player on the floor, they went on a 16-4 run within the first five minutes of play.
After going up 14 at 15:34 in the second half, Creighton never looked back. The closest the Hoyas got to regaining their lead was a 5-point deficit with just under 10 minutes left to play, thanks to a run of free throws by Mack and Epps.
However, just as Georgetown got back into the game, Creighton received contributions from the bench to seal their victory. Bluejays guard Fedor Žugić and forward Isaac Traudt combined to score 11 consecutive Creighton points. Žugić knocked down an open look beyond the arc, before Traudt rang off 8 straight points, 6 of which came from deep.
With sophomore forward Drew Fielder in foul trouble for much of the second half, Creighton was able to use their size to get easy looks near the rim and capitalize on second chances from offensive rebounds.
Georgetown Head Coach Ed Cooley said he was frustrated with the team’s lack of depth after the game.
“I didn’t like our lack of physicality over the course of the entire game,” Cooley said in a postgame press conference. “And when you lose a Caleb, when you lose a Thomas, you’re replacing those guys with somebody who’s 220 and the other one’s 225, that’s just not thick enough up front in our league.”
“You just don’t have enough depth and physicality in the league right now to remain at the top tier of the league, right? Because again, if we’re healthy, we can beat anybody in the league. ” Cooley added.
Another glaring issue throughout the game was the Hoyas’ abysmal free-throw shooting. After tonight’s ugly 7-of-14 (50%) performance (and particularly bad 3-of-10 in the second half), Georgetown is now shooting just over 70% on the year. If the Hoyas want to be competitive for the remainder of their schedule, the team will have to improve their success rate from the charity stripe.
Unfortunately, the loss to Creighton was just the start of a gauntlet for the Hoyas. After two days of rest, they will face an angry University of Connecticut (UConn) team at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. They then host No. 21 Marquette University and Villanova University. Although these games are at home, they are over Georgetown’s spring break and will therefore lack an energetic student section.
Georgetown will close its regular season with a trip to Chicago to play DePaul University. In an ideal world, this is a get-right game before the Big East Tournament in New York, but the Hoyas fell to DePaul at home in their first meeting this season.
As it stands, winning the Big East Tournament is almost surely the only way the Hoyas could earn an NCAA Tournament berth.