February 24, 2019 - When Georgetown impressively dispatched Villanova this past week, hopes were high in and out the program for a change in fortune; maybe, just maybe these young Hoyas could capitalize on head coach Pat Ewing’s signature win as Georgetown’s coach. Possibly two BIG EAST Conference wins could be strung together for just the second time in 2018-19. Could the Hoyas trend upward at the right time of the season, in the process securing a NCAA Tournament bid?

After G’Town’s disappointing 82-69 loss at Creighton, yesterday, at this juncture returns stand as ‘No’. Ewing was blunt in his assessment, afterward.

“Sometimes you don’t handle success very well. We played a great game versus Villanova, and I thought that we didn’t come out the way I would have liked for us to come out today” he said during his press conference, as provided by Creighton Athletic’s Youtube channel. “In order to be a great team, great team’s backup what they did if they have a great team.

“A mediocre team did what we did today. We didn’t come out with the same energy and effort that we needed to come out…with, to be able to come out and get a road win against a very good team”.

- The numbers back his assertion:

- No starter scored over nine points or had a plus/minute rating over -8.

- The bench scored 40 points, starters 29.

- G’Town only led for 26 seconds, all in the first half.

- Their largest deficit stood 18 points.

- In the second half, Creighton led by double digits for 17 minutes, 24 seconds

Creighton shot 51.8% from the field, 41.2% on three pointers. Ewing bemoaned his team’s lack of defensive effort and execution, saying “We have to get back and set our defense” since “They are a unique team in that they spread you out and they space the floor. They get back door cuts, they hit threes. You have to help and they get the ball to the weakside for threes.

“But still, we’re a good enough team where we should have handled it”.

The last twenty minutes were a killer in Ewing’s estimation, as “You look at the first half, we played very poorly in the first half, and was still only down six (40-34)…And start of the first half instead of getting a stop we they scored”.

That was a jump shot by junior CU center Martin Krampelj, who logged a game best 22 points and 10 rebounds. His fortunes took an uptick in second frame play, where 16 points were scored.

The fortunes of his Georgetown counterpart, center Jessie Govan, contrast greatly with Krampelj’s, while also functioning as a microcosm of G’Town’s experience; An 18-plus point and greater than eight rebound a game scorer during BIG EAST play, Govan, a senior, only mustered nine points and a trio of caroms. He wasn’t effective.

G’Town’s lone bright spot were a pair of reserves, as sophomore guard Jahvon Blair rung up a team high 16 points on prodigious 5-8 overall shooting, 3-5 beyond the arc, and senior wing Greg Malinowski dropped 12 points, all from long distance.

The one statistic Georgetown - which shot 43.3% from the field, 32.1% on three balls - won, if only at the individual level, was freshman point guard James Akinjo’s eight assists. Almost expectantly the team failed that battle too, given Creighton’s slim 20-19 dime advantage as a unit.

Creighton, presently 15-18 on the season, 6-9 in BIG EAST work and having swept the Hoyas in regular season play, lifted itself from bottom dwelling 10th to 8th via this win. Up next for the Bluejays is Marquette, March 3rd on the road, at 3pm EST.

Georgetown (11-5, 6-8, 5th) welcomes DePaul on Wednesday for a 7p start.

In Ewing’s mind, his team must manage “success and failure”, a true observation.

What will occur against DePaul, a tilt that can only be judged as must-win if Georgetown’s desires of NCAA Tournament participation are to be realized?