Georgetown rides hot shooting to upset of No. 15 Creighton

OMAHA, Neb. — Jahvon Blair scored 21 points to lead four Georgetown players in double figures, and the Hoyas used their best shooting in weeks to build a big lead and beat No. 15 Creighton 86-79 on Wednesday night.

Georgetown (5-8, 3-5 Big East), a 13-point underdog, won its second straight after a three-week layoff because of a COVID-19 outbreak. The Hoyas won for the first time in five road games and beat the Bluejays at CHI Health Center for the first time in six tries.

Creighton (13-5, 9-4) came in off three straight wins, but the Bluejays were not sharp in any of them. They turned in another unpolished performance, and this time they couldn't overcome it.

Blair made a season-high six 3-pointers, the biggest coming with 1:34 left when he banked one in from the wing as the shot clock was about to expire. That put the Hoyas up 79-70.

Chudier Bile had 15 of his 17 points in the second half and Jamorko Pickett had a season-high five 3s and finished with 16 points. Qudus Wahab added 12 points.

Georgetown entered the game as the second-worst shooting team in the Big East. The Hoyas hit 50% from the field, their best mark since Dec. 13 against St. John's, and were 10 for 21 on 3s.

Denzel Mahoney led the Bluejays with 20 points. Mitch Ballock added 16 points and Christian Bishop and Marcus Zegarowski had 14 apiece.

The Bluejays rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit to tie it at 44 on Zegarowski's 3 early in the second half. Blair's 3 the next trip down the court put the Hoyas ahead again, and they were up 67-57 on Bile's steal and layup.

Bishop converted Zegarowski's pass into a reverse dunk to pull the Bluejays within 72-66 and force Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing to call a timeout with 4:39 left. The Bluejays got no closer.

Georgetown, which entered the game hitting 35% of its 3-pointers, made its first five and 8 of 13 in its best half of shooting from distance this season.

Pickett’s fourth 3 gave the Hoyas their biggest lead of the half, 42-31. Creighton scored eight straight points before Donald Carey’s jumper in the lane made it 44-39 at the break.

BIG PICTURE

Georgetown: The Hoyas are playing their best ball of the season. They wiped out a 15-point deficit to beat Providence 73-72 on Saturday. They never trailed after the first six minutes against Creighton while ending a five-game losing streak against AP Top 25 opponents.

Creighton: The Bluejays shot under 50% for the fifth time in six games and turned over the ball 15 times, with the Hoyas converting those into 19 points.

PINK OUT

The Bluejays wore white uniforms with pink trim and themed warmup tops for their 11th annual Pink Out. Those items and others were sold at a fan auction that raised $40,381 for breast cancer research. Creighton's Pink Outs have raised more than $300,000 since starting in 2011. Coach Greg McDermott's wife, Theresa, is a breast cancer survivor.

3-POINT STREAK

The Bluejays extended their streak of making at least one 3-pointer to 900 games. The last time they didn't have a 3-point field goal was Feb. 20, 1993, against Illinois State.

UP NEXT

Georgetown visits No. 3 Villanova on Sunday.

Creighton visits Marquette on Saturday.