Ryan Kalkbrenner produced 16 points to lead a balanced scoring attack as Creighton held off Georgetown 63-53 on Wednesday in Washington D.C.
All five starters scored in double figures for the third straight game for the Bluejays (14-8, 8-3 Big East), who have won five games in a row.
Ryan Nembhard poured in 14 points, while Arthur Kaluma scored nine of his 12 points in the first half. Trey Alexander finished with 11 points and Baylor Scheierman chipped in 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Qudus Wahab finished with 14 points to lead the Hoyas (6-17, 1-11) in scoring for just the second time this season. Georgetown’s usually dependable scorers trudged through uncharacteristically sluggish shooting nights.
Primo Spears entered Wednesday’s contest with an average of 17.1 points per game that ranked second in the Big East, but neither he nor Brandon Murray (14.6 points per game) scored in the first half. The Hoyas missed 14 of their final 15 shots in the period’s final nine minutes and trailed 35-21 at the half.
Murray finished with 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting, while Spears slogged to a 10-point night on 5-of-18 shooting. Murray pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
Georgetown’s Jay Heath scored seven points off the bench in his first game since undergoing surgery for a finger injury he sustained at DePaul on Dec. 29.
The Hoyas shaved the 14-point halftime deficit to five entering the under-eight media timeout, but Alexander scored the first five points of an 8-0 Bluejays burst that Nembhard polished off with a step-back 3-pointer to give Creighton a 56-43 cushion with 5:20 to play.
Georgetown never got closer than nine points the rest of the way and lost its second straight game since beating DePaul 81-76 on Jan. 24 to snap its Big East-record, 29-game conference losing streak.
Heath and Wahab combined for 14 points in the first half as Georgetown withstood an early scoring flurry by Kaluma and pulled ahead 18-17, but the Bluejays dominated the final seven minutes of the first period.
Kalkbrenner scored eight points to lead Creighton’s 18-3 surge. The run was fueled by nine second-chance points, and the Bluejays’ stout defense bottled up the Hoyas.
Creighton outrebounded the Hoyas 48-34 on the night and held a 16-6 advantage in second-chance points.
–Field Level Media
