Georgetown defeats Marquette to advance to Big East Tournament quarterfinals

The #9 Georgetown Hoyas have secured a Thursday meeting with the #1 Villanova Wildcats following Georgetown’s 68-49 win over #8 Marquette in the Big East Tournament opening game.

The game was really never all that close, as Georgetown set the tone of what they wanted to do early on, and kept that going throughout the contest. The Hoyas parked themselves down low in the first half, and pulled in 11 offensive rebounds, which they turned into 15 second chance points. On the other end, Marquette shot a frosty 21% from the field in the first 20 minutes and scored just 14 points, with seven of those coming from DJ Carton.

The second half saw Georgetown’s leading scorer Jahvon Blair spring into action, with 14 of his game-high 20 points coming in the second frame. Qudus Wahab had a solid all-around game for the Hoyas as well, finishing with 19 points.

Georgetown came into the game among the nation’s worst teams at protecting the ball, turning it over at a 22.1% clip. The Hoyas had 13 turnovers on 68 possesions in Wednesday’s win, meaning they turned it over just 19.1% of the time.

DJ Carton led Marquette with 17 points. Carton was, by far, the best player on the floor for the Golden Eagles on Wednesday.

As Georgetown looks ahead to Villanova, Marquette now looks ahead to an offseason that will feature many questions from the fanbase about the future of the program.