The Streak is Over: Hoyas beat No. 16 Creighton 71-51

“It feels good. It feels really good.” - Coach John Thompson III after Georgetown led virtually wire to wire in defeating No. 16 Creighton 71-51 Wednesday night

WASHINGTON – Literally a year in the making, Georgetown routed No. 16 Creighton 71-51 in front of 8,185 at the Verizon Center on Wednesday night to earn the program’s first BIG EAST victory over someone other than DePaul or St. John’s since Jan. 26, 2016.

Yes, coming into tonight Georgetown had gone just 3-16 in its last 19 conference games with all three of those victories coming against the aforementioned perennial cellar dwellers.

LJ Peak led the Hoyas (11-10, 2-6) with 20 points as Georgetown won for just the second time in their last eleven games against ranked opposition.

Peak became the 46^th player in Georgetown history to reach the 1,000 point plateau when he drained his second 3-pointer of the night with 3:35 remaining to give the Hoyas a 69-48 lead. Peak is the 12^th different Hoya to do so under JT3’s watch.

Rodney Pryor added 18 points, five rebounds, and a career high six assists while Jessie Govan chipped in with 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench as Georgetown avoided tying its worst ever eight game start in BIG EAST play while also snapping a four game losing streak against the Top 25. Although it only count for two points, Pryor had one of the more ridiculous Georgetown dunks this side of Aaron Bowen in quite some time as the Hoyas took a 12 point lead into halftime.

Creighton (18-3, 5-3) came into the game as the second best shooting team in the country and tenth in 3-point percentage but remained ice cold all game against the Hoyas by shooting 35 percent overall and hitting on just 1-of-18 from deep. There might not be a better example of how important good to great point guard play is than what the Bluejays looked like tonight without an injured Mo Watson.

“I thought our guys were very engaged and as a unit I thought we did maybe the best job we’ve done this year anticipating what’s going to happen next,” said JT3 after his team’s impressive defensive performance.

“Now clearly they miss Watson and he’s one of the best players in the country.”

In Georgetown’s last game at the Verizon Center – a blowout defeat at the hands of Providence – Friars coach Ed Cooley mentioned that for whatever reason his team just matchups up well against the Hoyas.

Against Creighton, Georgetown enjoys a similar advantage by improving to 6-2 overall against the Bluejays since they joined the league in 2013. In fact Creighton was the last team the Hoyas beat other than the Red Storm and Blue Demons to start this unbelievable streak of futility within the BIG EAST.

Georgetown assisted on 20 of 29 shots against Creighton and unofficially has the most back door cuts for layups this season. JT3 agreed when I asked if tonight was the best his team had played in terms of moving off the ball. Apparently it’s been a point of emphasis as of late. JT3 said he thinks that his team has been settling for the first or second option far too often.

“We have to play faster in the halfcout,” said JT3.

“We’ve been moving too slow. We’ve been easier to guard.”

It’s really hard to disagree with any of those comments.

Georgetown also righted two ills that killed them against Xavier last weekend. Georgetown outrebounded Creighton 47 to 36 while picking up 11 on the offensive end after grabbing just one in Cincinnati. The Hoyas also did a better job of defending without fouling as the Bluejays shot just 18 free throws which is 31 fewer than they gave up last time out.

Misc: We didn’t have a working scoreboard until after the first media timeout. Believe it or not Father McFadden announced the score after each basket until we got the scoreboard working again….Jonathan Mulmore became the ninth different Hoya to start a game this season, replacing Jagan Mosely in the lineup...Mosely had started the previous 20 games…Georgetown last beat the 16^th ranked team back on Dec 23, 2010 when they took down Memphis on the road....Pryor and Peak both scored in double figures for the 15th time this season...Georgetown is 10-5 when that happens.