Shorthanded Georgetown melts down on defense in loss to Creighton

The Hoyas didn’t come close to the necessary level at the defensive end in the second half as they lurched to a 77-60 loss before 4,980 at Capital One Arena in their Big East home opener.

And so a problem evident from the early days of Cooley’s first season as Georgetown’s coach continues, not unaddressed but not nearly enhanced enough.

“We’re not going to win games if we’re not going to be better defensively as a unit,” Cooley said. “The word ‘collectivity’ defensively is so important, and right now, Game 14, we should be better than this defensively. It’s an embarrassment the way we’re guarding right now. It’s an absolute embarrassment.”

Redshirt freshman Rowan Brumbaugh scored a career-high 19 points for the Hoyas (7-7, 0-3 Big East). Georgetown did not make any players available for comment after the loss.

Even with Jahmir Young, Maryland is no match for top-ranked Purdue

Trey Alexander scored 18 of his season-high 25 points in the second half and Scheierman collected 18 points and 12 rebounds for Creighton (10-4, 1-2), which had lost three of four. The Bluejays clobbered Georgetown on the glass (42-21) and shot 63.6 percent in the second half to bust open what was a four-point game at halftime.

The Hoyas were not helped by the absence of guard Jayden Epps, who sat out with an ankle injury and wore a boot on his right foot. The Big East’s third-leading scorer at 17.8 points, Epps has missed three of Georgetown’s past five. He sat out victories over Coppin State and Notre Dame last month because of illness.

“It’ll be day-to-day,” Cooley said of Epps’s availability for Saturday’s home game against DePaul, the only other Big East team still winless in league play. “He’s banged up pretty good. It’s unfortunate he’s had so many different injuries.”

Even without Epps, Georgetown got off to a frisky start as Jay Heath scored nine of his 11 points en route to a 15-10 lead. The Hoyas’ offense underwhelmed the rest of the half, going scoreless for nearly seven minutes and mustering just two points in 8:48.

But Creighton frittered away a chance to open things up just before the break, turning it over on four consecutive possessions. The Bluejays had 11 giveaways in the half and led 28-24 at the midpoint.

Georgetown never got closer. Creighton uncorked a 12-0 run to make it 49-31 with 12:27 to go, effectively putting the game out of reach in the manner befitting a squad that returned three starters from an Elite Eight team.

“Some of it was self-induced, I think,” Creighton Coach Greg McDermott said. “Georgetown was certainly aggressive and switching some screens, but they’d been doing that all half. We have to be better than that. The second half, I think our pace wore into them a little bit and we took better care of the basketball. We’re a pretty good offensive team if we get a shot at the rim.”

In the second half, the Bluejays averaged 1.6 points per trip (49 points in 31 possessions) and shot 17 for 21 (81.0 percent) from two-point range.

The quiet, oft-unnoticed accomplice was Georgetown’s defense, which had also melted down in its most recent outing — an ugly 81-51 loss at Marquette on Dec. 22.

“Right now my team has to be a lot tougher, we have to be a lot more physical in this league,” Cooley said. “This is not a league that’s going to be forgiving. Nobody’s coming here saying ‘Okay, we just want to win by one.’ If a team can beat you by 100 in the Big East, they’re going to beat you by 100, and they’re not going to apologize.”

Cooley’s teams — when he was an assistant at Rhode Island and Boston College or the head coach at Fairfield and Providence — haven’t always been the most talented. But far more often than not, he has played a part in programs that could rely on defense to stay in games.

So it isn’t just jarring that the Hoyas haven’t progressed quickly enough. It’s that they’re so limited on that end in the first place. With 17 more Big East games to come, there is a clear mandate to improve, lest Tuesday’s second half become the norm rather than an early January low tide.

“They’re out there fighting,” Cooley said. “We have to fight a little bit harder. We have to be patient with their growth and development. The process of transition isn’t overnight. It isn’t over a year. It may take some time. And patience is a word people don’t like to hear, but that’s where we’re at and that’s what we’ll continue to talk about.”