Saturday, March 13
New York, N.Y.
5:30 PM
Creighton University
20-8,14-6Big East
48
vs
73
Georgetown
13-12,7-9Big East
1
2
F
Georgetown
36
37
73
Creighton
18
30
48
Photo by: Porter Binks
Men's Basketball Falls to Georgetown in BIG EAST Tournament Title Game
3/13/2021 7:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
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Hoya run to end first half too much to overcome for CU
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- An 34-3 run spanning halftime helped Georgetown to a 73-48 over second-seeded and 17th-ranked Creighton in the championship game of the BIG EAST Tournament on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
Georgetown (13-12) won its first tile since 2007 while becoming the first eighth seed to ever win the tournament. Creighton (20-8) had its three-game win streak snapped this season and fell to 0-3 in BIG EAST Tournament title games.
Creighton won the opening tip and started the game with a lob from Marcus Zegarowski to Christian Bishop. Zegarowski then hit a mid-range jumper to make it 4-0. Consecutive scores in transition put the Bluejays ahead 13-6 and led to Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing calling a timeout. The Hoyas responded with a 7-0 run with Zegarowski and Mitch Ballock on the bench to knot the score at 13-all. The Hoyas took their first lead at the 7:39 mark on a pull-up triple by Donald Carey to move in front, 18-16. Zegarowski answered to tie the score at 18 before the Hoyas unleashed an 18-0 blitz to close the first half as the Bluejays missed 11 straight shots in the final 5:52.
Reserve Jahvon Blair had 10 of his points during the run and led all players with 13 at the break. Creighton's 18 points, and 26.7 percent shooting were both season-lows for a half. Zegarowski led CU with nine points at the break after making his first four field goal attempts. The Hoyas outrebounded Creighton 28-19 in the first half, led by seven from Qudus Wahab, and outscored the Bluejay reserves 15-0.
Zegarowski scored the first hoop of the second half, but Chudier Bile scored nine points as Georgetown countered with a 16-1 run as the margin stretched to 52-21 with 15 minutes to play. The Bluejays never got any closer than 25 the rest of the evening.
Zegarowski led Creighton with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, but he was the lone bright spot for a Bluejay offense that generated season-lows in points (48) and field goal percentage (.288). Also in double-figures was Alex O'Connell, who scored 11 points off the bench
Georgetown was led by 19 points from Bile, who added eight rebounds. Blair added 18 points off the bench and Wahab produced a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Tournament MVP Dante Harris recorded 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists to wrap up a strong performance in his BIG EAST Tournament debut.
Creighton will now wait for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, which airs on Sunday, March 14 at 5 p.m. Central on CBS.
NOTES: Creighton has made a three-pointer in 910 straight games, and 281 consecutive contests before halftime ...Christian Bishop moved into sole possession of eighth place on Creighton's blocked shot list with an early swat to give him 80 in his career .. Creighton's 18 points at the break were its fewest in a first half since scoring 17 vs. Georgetown on Jan. 31, 2015 ... Shereef Mitchell missed the game due to injury ... Georgetown is coached by former New York Knicks star Patrick Ewing, whose No. 33 jersey hangs in the Madison Square Garden rafters ... Georgetown is now 2-0 all-time against Creighton at the BIG EAST Tournament, also winning in the 2015 quarterfinals ...Creighton fell to 7-7 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament ... Mitch Ballock grabbed his 500th career rebound midway through the second half ... Creighton's Marcus Zegarowski was named to the All-Tournament Team.
A transcript with: Creighton Bluejays, Marcus Zegarowski
105596-1-1045 2021-03-14 01:47:00 GMT
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105596.pdf
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105596.html
Georgetown - 73, Creighton - 48
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Marcus.
Q. Seemed like that last 12 minutes of the first half decided the game. What did you see in how Georgetown was able to take control and never really give you guys a chance to get back into it?
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: I think we started off pretty strong on both ends of the floor. And then they started making shots. And it's a game of momentum. And they got momentum around that time. And, you know, we just couldn't find it on both ends of the floor.
You know, it happens. But all we can do is learn from it watch the film, flush it and get ready for March Madness.
Q. Did you feel like maybe you got sped up perhaps, offensively, just in terms of once they started hitting shots, Marcus? Because there was a stretch there when you weren't able to hit any either.
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: Yeah, you know, it's a game of -- it's a miss or make game. If you make shots you're in position to win; if you don't make shots you have to dig down on the defensive end. And we didn't do that on the defensive end while not hitting shots. And at this level this type of game it costs you. It cost us tonight. And, like I said, we'll learn from it and we'll bounce back.
Q. As they got momentum, did you feel as though they didn't believe that they would lose? They were playing so feel free and open. Did you feel as though their momentum they were at such a high level momentum they didn't feel as though they could lose?
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: I mean, we were -- we were trying to regroup and find some energy. But they played a really good ball game. I tip my hat to them. And there's nothing else to be said. They played a great game. They beat us.
Q. You talked about flushing it. What do you think the mood is of the team heading into March Madness?
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: Obviously as competitors we're mad we lost. It's just such a big game. It was for the championship of our league. But, you know, there's bigger things ahead for us. March Madness is a really good time for us to try and turn the page and learn from it. Coach said in the locker room, a game like this really has only happened to us twice -- last year versus San Diego State. And we really bounced back versus them in that game. And our plan is really to bounce back after this one.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
A transcript with: Creighton Bluejays, Greg McDermott
105597-2-1045 2021-03-14 01:56:00 GMT
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105597.pdf
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105597.html
Georgetown - 73, Creighton - 48
COACH MCDERMOTT: Congrats to Georgetown. They played a terrific game on both ends of the floor. I'm just thinking in games like this where obviously they played three days in a row and we've played two days in a row, and we were in a very physical grind-it-out game late last night. So I think so much of it is momentum, and when you have momentum you don't think about being fatigued and you're not a half a step slow. We had that momentum early. We got off to that lead, and then they really captured it after that.
And even, I think, it's a three-point game with a little over five minutes to go in the first half. And we just had a collapse there at the end of the first half, offensively and defensively.
So I feel for our guys. They've worked hard to get to this point. And you want to finish it when you get here. At the same time we have to have the maturity to flush it and learn from it, move on and get ready for next weekend.
Q. You haven't really had a performance like this all season yet. How do you get the guys to use the short part of their memory and make sure they're confident going into March Madness?
COACH MCDERMOTT: I mean, the good side is we don't have to play in a day or two. We won't play for possibly a week. So we have some time to get a little bit of rest and some time to get on the practice floor and get everybody healthy, hopefully for a good run in the NCAA Tournament.
But we've got a mature group and I think they understand this hasn't happened to us very often over the course of the last couple of years. I don't think, as you mentioned, it hasn't happened all season this year, where we just didn't have it on either end of the floor, but once in a while it happens. You just hope it doesn't happen on a night like tonight.
Q. You mentioned momentum. You guys have taken some gut punches at times this year and bounced back in games, down early to Providence, forced that game, came back against Seton Hall. Why was it so difficult to flip it in this one?
COACH MCDERMOTT: We just couldn't ever hit that big shot. I thought there were times where we ran pretty good offense and got an open shot and missed it. Then we'd have a pretty good defensive possession and they'd hit a shot the last five seconds or get an offensive rebound and stick it back in there.
So to get out of those holes you need some good things to happen. And after that first 15 minutes of the game, we didn't have much good happen the rest of the way.
Q. Obviously you guys didn't play well today. But it seems like Georgetown is a completely different team than they were during the early season and during the regular season in general. How do you feel about that and what makes them so difficult to play now?
COACH MCDERMOTT: As I told Coach Ewing after the game, I'm just really happy for the Georgetown program, especially happy for Patrick. I think he's done a terrific job of building that program and has done it the right way.
And obviously there's been a lot of adversity this year with a couple of pauses that they've had. And he found a way to get them to bounce out of that.
So they have length on the inside. They really challenge you at the rim. And they've got length on the wing as well with Blair and Pickett. And I really think Harris, his maturity over the course of the year has really changed the trajectory of the team in my opinion because he's really became a reliable ball handler, distributor and scorer as well.
So I think he was playing at the end of the season as well as any freshman in our league.
Q. Georgetown played pretty good defense against you guys, strong to the floor, held you to 28 percent in the first half. But was I wrong in seeing that you guys just missed a lot of shots that you typically make?
COACH MCDERMOTT: We shoot a lot of 3-point shots and tonight obviously we didn't shoot it well. I think we had three starters combined 3-of-27, and those are guys that have been pretty efficient most of the season.
So it happens once in a while and obviously their ability to protect the paint kind of forces you out to the 3-point line. And to loosen that defense up and get those guys out of the paint you have to make some shots and force them to kind of stretch out a little bit and that creates some driving lanes. And we couldn't get them out of that because we couldn't make a shot.
Q. Obviously today didn't go as planned. But what are some positives you guys can take out of this game going forward into the NCAA Tournament?
COACH MCDERMOTT: I don't know there's a lot of positives we can take out of the game. I think we can take some positives out of the weekend. We played really well against Butler on Thursday. Really were able to win a rock fight last night against a very good UConn team.
So we'll take from those games, and then we'll look at this film and try to break it down and figure out what things could have we done different, where was some mistakes in terms of our coverages defensively, execution offensively that we can try to clean up as we move into next weekend.
Q. Obviously not the way you wanted things to end. What do you feel like you need to do better getting ready for March Madness? And how good is this team down the road? Because this is a very well run organization.
COACH MCDERMOTT: Thank you, I appreciate that. And I've got a great group of guys in that locker room. And we've been solid defensively really all year and our offense has been one of the top 15 or 20 offenses in the country. And tonight it wasn't. You credit Georgetown for their ability to take us out of rhythm.
But we can accomplish everything, anything that we want to because this is a team that understands how to play the game. They play together. And defensively we're usually really connected and tonight we weren't.
So we'll fix a few things, and, like I said, we're excited to take part in Selection Sunday tomorrow, see where we're going, and get ready to play next weekend.
Q. You still have a very experienced roster. When it comes to this time of the year in the NCAA Tournament, experience tends to be a favored asset of teams that want to make a deep run. So, how much of a role do you want the experience you have on your team to play, to get to where you want to be in the tournament, which is the second weekend?
COACH MCDERMOTT: Yeah, and it's everything. Leadership at this time of year is so vitally important, especially when you're coming off one of these games. Those guys have to have the ability and the maturity to kind of process what happened, maybe learn from it, then almost pretend it never happened, because we haven't had one of these games all season in 28 games until tonight.
So that's where that leadership and maturity, you don't want self-doubt to creep in this time of year. So we'll get our bounce back in our step and we'll be excited to play this weekend.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
105597-2-1045 2021-03-14 01:56:00 GMT
2021 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
The winner of the Dave Gavitt Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Tournament.
Dante Harris, Georgetown
The 2021 BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.
Qudus Wahab, Georgetown
Jahvon Blair, Georgetown
Marcus Zegarowski, Creighton
Adama Sanogo, Connecticut
Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall
Georgetown (13-12) won its first tile since 2007 while becoming the first eighth seed to ever win the tournament. Creighton (20-8) had its three-game win streak snapped this season and fell to 0-3 in BIG EAST Tournament title games.
Creighton won the opening tip and started the game with a lob from Marcus Zegarowski to Christian Bishop. Zegarowski then hit a mid-range jumper to make it 4-0. Consecutive scores in transition put the Bluejays ahead 13-6 and led to Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing calling a timeout. The Hoyas responded with a 7-0 run with Zegarowski and Mitch Ballock on the bench to knot the score at 13-all. The Hoyas took their first lead at the 7:39 mark on a pull-up triple by Donald Carey to move in front, 18-16. Zegarowski answered to tie the score at 18 before the Hoyas unleashed an 18-0 blitz to close the first half as the Bluejays missed 11 straight shots in the final 5:52.
Reserve Jahvon Blair had 10 of his points during the run and led all players with 13 at the break. Creighton's 18 points, and 26.7 percent shooting were both season-lows for a half. Zegarowski led CU with nine points at the break after making his first four field goal attempts. The Hoyas outrebounded Creighton 28-19 in the first half, led by seven from Qudus Wahab, and outscored the Bluejay reserves 15-0.
Zegarowski scored the first hoop of the second half, but Chudier Bile scored nine points as Georgetown countered with a 16-1 run as the margin stretched to 52-21 with 15 minutes to play. The Bluejays never got any closer than 25 the rest of the evening.
Zegarowski led Creighton with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, but he was the lone bright spot for a Bluejay offense that generated season-lows in points (48) and field goal percentage (.288). Also in double-figures was Alex O'Connell, who scored 11 points off the bench
Georgetown was led by 19 points from Bile, who added eight rebounds. Blair added 18 points off the bench and Wahab produced a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Tournament MVP Dante Harris recorded 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists to wrap up a strong performance in his BIG EAST Tournament debut.
Creighton will now wait for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, which airs on Sunday, March 14 at 5 p.m. Central on CBS.
NOTES: Creighton has made a three-pointer in 910 straight games, and 281 consecutive contests before halftime ...Christian Bishop moved into sole possession of eighth place on Creighton's blocked shot list with an early swat to give him 80 in his career .. Creighton's 18 points at the break were its fewest in a first half since scoring 17 vs. Georgetown on Jan. 31, 2015 ... Shereef Mitchell missed the game due to injury ... Georgetown is coached by former New York Knicks star Patrick Ewing, whose No. 33 jersey hangs in the Madison Square Garden rafters ... Georgetown is now 2-0 all-time against Creighton at the BIG EAST Tournament, also winning in the 2015 quarterfinals ...Creighton fell to 7-7 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament ... Mitch Ballock grabbed his 500th career rebound midway through the second half ... Creighton's Marcus Zegarowski was named to the All-Tournament Team.
A transcript with: Creighton Bluejays, Marcus Zegarowski
105596-1-1045 2021-03-14 01:47:00 GMT
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105596.pdf
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105596.html
Big East Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Saturday, March 13, 2021
New York, New York, USA
Creighton Bluejays
Madison Square Garden
Marcus Zegarowski
Postgame Media Conference
Georgetown - 73, Creighton - 48
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Marcus.
Q. Seemed like that last 12 minutes of the first half decided the game. What did you see in how Georgetown was able to take control and never really give you guys a chance to get back into it?
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: I think we started off pretty strong on both ends of the floor. And then they started making shots. And it's a game of momentum. And they got momentum around that time. And, you know, we just couldn't find it on both ends of the floor.
You know, it happens. But all we can do is learn from it watch the film, flush it and get ready for March Madness.
Q. Did you feel like maybe you got sped up perhaps, offensively, just in terms of once they started hitting shots, Marcus? Because there was a stretch there when you weren't able to hit any either.
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: Yeah, you know, it's a game of -- it's a miss or make game. If you make shots you're in position to win; if you don't make shots you have to dig down on the defensive end. And we didn't do that on the defensive end while not hitting shots. And at this level this type of game it costs you. It cost us tonight. And, like I said, we'll learn from it and we'll bounce back.
Q. As they got momentum, did you feel as though they didn't believe that they would lose? They were playing so feel free and open. Did you feel as though their momentum they were at such a high level momentum they didn't feel as though they could lose?
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: I mean, we were -- we were trying to regroup and find some energy. But they played a really good ball game. I tip my hat to them. And there's nothing else to be said. They played a great game. They beat us.
Q. You talked about flushing it. What do you think the mood is of the team heading into March Madness?
MARCUS ZEGAROWSKI: Obviously as competitors we're mad we lost. It's just such a big game. It was for the championship of our league. But, you know, there's bigger things ahead for us. March Madness is a really good time for us to try and turn the page and learn from it. Coach said in the locker room, a game like this really has only happened to us twice -- last year versus San Diego State. And we really bounced back versus them in that game. And our plan is really to bounce back after this one.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
A transcript with: Creighton Bluejays, Greg McDermott
105597-2-1045 2021-03-14 01:56:00 GMT
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105597.pdf
http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1076/1190/transcripts/105597.html
Big East Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Saturday, March 13, 2021
New York, New York, USA
Creighton Bluejays
Madison Square Garden
Coach Greg McDermott
Postgame Media Conference
Georgetown - 73, Creighton - 48
COACH MCDERMOTT: Congrats to Georgetown. They played a terrific game on both ends of the floor. I'm just thinking in games like this where obviously they played three days in a row and we've played two days in a row, and we were in a very physical grind-it-out game late last night. So I think so much of it is momentum, and when you have momentum you don't think about being fatigued and you're not a half a step slow. We had that momentum early. We got off to that lead, and then they really captured it after that.
And even, I think, it's a three-point game with a little over five minutes to go in the first half. And we just had a collapse there at the end of the first half, offensively and defensively.
So I feel for our guys. They've worked hard to get to this point. And you want to finish it when you get here. At the same time we have to have the maturity to flush it and learn from it, move on and get ready for next weekend.
Q. You haven't really had a performance like this all season yet. How do you get the guys to use the short part of their memory and make sure they're confident going into March Madness?
COACH MCDERMOTT: I mean, the good side is we don't have to play in a day or two. We won't play for possibly a week. So we have some time to get a little bit of rest and some time to get on the practice floor and get everybody healthy, hopefully for a good run in the NCAA Tournament.
But we've got a mature group and I think they understand this hasn't happened to us very often over the course of the last couple of years. I don't think, as you mentioned, it hasn't happened all season this year, where we just didn't have it on either end of the floor, but once in a while it happens. You just hope it doesn't happen on a night like tonight.
Q. You mentioned momentum. You guys have taken some gut punches at times this year and bounced back in games, down early to Providence, forced that game, came back against Seton Hall. Why was it so difficult to flip it in this one?
COACH MCDERMOTT: We just couldn't ever hit that big shot. I thought there were times where we ran pretty good offense and got an open shot and missed it. Then we'd have a pretty good defensive possession and they'd hit a shot the last five seconds or get an offensive rebound and stick it back in there.
So to get out of those holes you need some good things to happen. And after that first 15 minutes of the game, we didn't have much good happen the rest of the way.
Q. Obviously you guys didn't play well today. But it seems like Georgetown is a completely different team than they were during the early season and during the regular season in general. How do you feel about that and what makes them so difficult to play now?
COACH MCDERMOTT: As I told Coach Ewing after the game, I'm just really happy for the Georgetown program, especially happy for Patrick. I think he's done a terrific job of building that program and has done it the right way.
And obviously there's been a lot of adversity this year with a couple of pauses that they've had. And he found a way to get them to bounce out of that.
So they have length on the inside. They really challenge you at the rim. And they've got length on the wing as well with Blair and Pickett. And I really think Harris, his maturity over the course of the year has really changed the trajectory of the team in my opinion because he's really became a reliable ball handler, distributor and scorer as well.
So I think he was playing at the end of the season as well as any freshman in our league.
Q. Georgetown played pretty good defense against you guys, strong to the floor, held you to 28 percent in the first half. But was I wrong in seeing that you guys just missed a lot of shots that you typically make?
COACH MCDERMOTT: We shoot a lot of 3-point shots and tonight obviously we didn't shoot it well. I think we had three starters combined 3-of-27, and those are guys that have been pretty efficient most of the season.
So it happens once in a while and obviously their ability to protect the paint kind of forces you out to the 3-point line. And to loosen that defense up and get those guys out of the paint you have to make some shots and force them to kind of stretch out a little bit and that creates some driving lanes. And we couldn't get them out of that because we couldn't make a shot.
Q. Obviously today didn't go as planned. But what are some positives you guys can take out of this game going forward into the NCAA Tournament?
COACH MCDERMOTT: I don't know there's a lot of positives we can take out of the game. I think we can take some positives out of the weekend. We played really well against Butler on Thursday. Really were able to win a rock fight last night against a very good UConn team.
So we'll take from those games, and then we'll look at this film and try to break it down and figure out what things could have we done different, where was some mistakes in terms of our coverages defensively, execution offensively that we can try to clean up as we move into next weekend.
Q. Obviously not the way you wanted things to end. What do you feel like you need to do better getting ready for March Madness? And how good is this team down the road? Because this is a very well run organization.
COACH MCDERMOTT: Thank you, I appreciate that. And I've got a great group of guys in that locker room. And we've been solid defensively really all year and our offense has been one of the top 15 or 20 offenses in the country. And tonight it wasn't. You credit Georgetown for their ability to take us out of rhythm.
But we can accomplish everything, anything that we want to because this is a team that understands how to play the game. They play together. And defensively we're usually really connected and tonight we weren't.
So we'll fix a few things, and, like I said, we're excited to take part in Selection Sunday tomorrow, see where we're going, and get ready to play next weekend.
Q. You still have a very experienced roster. When it comes to this time of the year in the NCAA Tournament, experience tends to be a favored asset of teams that want to make a deep run. So, how much of a role do you want the experience you have on your team to play, to get to where you want to be in the tournament, which is the second weekend?
COACH MCDERMOTT: Yeah, and it's everything. Leadership at this time of year is so vitally important, especially when you're coming off one of these games. Those guys have to have the ability and the maturity to kind of process what happened, maybe learn from it, then almost pretend it never happened, because we haven't had one of these games all season in 28 games until tonight.
So that's where that leadership and maturity, you don't want self-doubt to creep in this time of year. So we'll get our bounce back in our step and we'll be excited to play this weekend.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
105597-2-1045 2021-03-14 01:56:00 GMT
2021 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
The winner of the Dave Gavitt Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Tournament.
Dante Harris, Georgetown
The 2021 BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.
Qudus Wahab, Georgetown
Jahvon Blair, Georgetown
Marcus Zegarowski, Creighton
Adama Sanogo, Connecticut
Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall
Team Stats
GTown
CU
FG%
.466
.288
3FG%
.385
.265
FT%
.500
.417
RB
49
33
TO
12
11
STL
7
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
17
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
5
FGM
1
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
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