For Georgetown, slipper still fits — and the Hoyas are wearing it to the Big East final

By Patrick Stevens,

Georgetown Coach Patrick Ewing probably will long recall how this Hoyas team was picked to finish at the bottom in the Big East.

He certainly is happy to remind anyone who will listen how unheralded his Hoyas were five months ago. With Georgetown’s riveting conference tournament run continuing Friday night with a 66-58 defeat of Seton Hall in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden, it’s understandable why he’s content to bring it up.

“When the preseason rankings came out, they had us last,” Ewing said. “Now we’re playing in the championship game. So it’s not about what other people think of you. It’s what you think of yourselves, and my guys think very highly of themselves, and I think highly of them as well.”

The eighth-seeded Hoyas (12-12) will meet second-seeded Creighton in their first Big East title game appearance since 2010. A victory would send Georgetown — a listless 5-10 a month ago — to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015.

[Patrick Ewing on treatment at MSG: ‘Everybody in this building should know who the hell I am’]

Senior Jamorko Pickett had 19 points and six rebounds while providing strong defense on Seton Hall forward Sandro Mamukelashvili, the Big East’s co-player of the year, and freshman guard Dante Harris scored 15 points as Georgetown secured its first three-game winning streak of the season.

“We haven’t been to the championship since 2010, and that’s long overdue,” Pickett said. “Especially with all the adversity we overcame this year, it means a lot.”

The Hoyas are the lowest-seeded Big East finalist since 2011, when Kemba Walker-led Connecticut won five games in as many days as a No. 9 seed. A year earlier, Georgetown was a No. 8 seed when it lost the title game to West Virginia.

In those days, the Big East was a sprawling 16-school confederation, and a deep run by a No. 8 seed wasn’t particularly stunning. In the league’s current 11-team, hoops-centric configuration, that’s not the case for these Hoyas, who outworked a lethargic Marquette bunch in Wednesday’s first round before edging top-seeded and shorthanded Villanova in the quarterfinals on Harris’s late free throws.

Now they have spoiled the fifth-seeded Pirates’ postseason hopes. Despite a 22-point effort from Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall (14-13) is likely to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015 after dropping five of its final six.

[The NCAA tourney — and bracket contests — have rules in place should teams drop out]

Georgetown started that slide, and the Hoyas ended it by leading most of the way Friday.

Their margin grew as large as 11 points in the first half, though Seton Hall closed within 36-34 at the break. And while the Pirates forged several ties and even took a brief 53-52 lead with 6:20 left, they never established a steady rhythm on offense.

Most of their issues stemmed from how well Pickett and the Hoyas bottled up Mamukelashvili. The senior entered averaging 17.9 points but managed just eight points on 3 of 16 shooting.

“[Pickett] did a fantastic job,” Ewing said. “He fought hard. He competed hard. Sometimes he was talking a little bit too much trash, but he did a fantastic job. Jamorko, he’s come a long way in terms of his growth. He started as a freshman, played a lot. Sophomore year had to take a back seat to some guys. He didn’t complain; he just kept working and persevering. Here he is now.”

While the Hoyas proved vulnerable in the paint, where Seton Hall outscored them 32-18, they were effective at getting to the line. Georgetown made 18 of 25 foul shots a day after going 23 for 23 at the line, while Seton Hall was just 5 for 11. The 6-foot-11 Mamukelashvili attempted only three free throws.

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“If you’re driving and you’re not getting foul calls, teams are able to be more physical with you,” Seton Hall Coach Kevin Willard said. “That probably doesn’t help.”

Georgetown didn’t take the lead for good until the final two minutes. Graduate student Chudier Bile completed a three-point play with 1:36 to go to make it 60-57, and the Pirates scored one point in their final four possessions while the Hoyas closed things out at the line.

And with that, the Hoyas are just one victory away from their first Big East championship since 2007, an unexpected development for a program that had lost five straight conference tournament games entering the week.

“My first three years here, we would have already been home because we didn’t play the way we would have liked,” said Ewing, himself a three-time Big East tournament champ as a Hoyas star in the 1980s. “But we’re making up for it today. It’s not just going to be a one-time thing.”