Hoyas stun ’Nova
NEW YORK — Dante Harris made two free throws with 4.7 seconds left to cap a perfect game from the line for Georgetown, and the Hoyas upset No. 14 Villanova 72-71 on Thursday to reach the Big East Tournament semifinals.
The eighth-seeded Hoyas (11-12) will play Seton Hall on Friday night at Madison Square Garden. Georgetown is in the conference semifinals for the first time since 2015.
“We took another step — in my house, by the way. This is my house,” Hoyas coach Patrick Ewing, the former New York Knicks star, said in a postgame television interview. “It’s a great win. Huge win. We played against the Cadillac, the Bentley, whatever you want to call them, of the Big East — the class of the Big East. And once upon a time that was us. But we took a huge step to be able to knock them off.“
Harris led the way with 18 points and drew a foul on Jeremiah Robinson-Earl driving to the basket with 4.7 seconds to go and the Hoyas down one.
Harris rattled in the first and swished the second to make Georgetown 23 of 23 from the line, the first time a team has shot 100% on at least 20 attempts in the Big East Tournament.
With no timeouts left, Caleb Daniels rushed up court and got off a long 3-pointer in traffic for Villanova, but it missed badly. The top-seeded Wildcats (16-6), playing without injured star Collin Gillespie, had won three straight Big East Tournament titles.
“Down the stretch it got down to a one-possession game and they executed those last two possessions a little bit better than us,“Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We had a tough time controlling Harris.”
Robinson-Earl led the Wildcats with 26 points and Jermaine Samuels added 20.
Qusub Wahab scored 17 points for Georgetown, including a three-point play with 40 seconds left that tied it at 70.
SETON HALL 77, ST. JOHN’S 69 (OT)
With its NCAA Tournament hopes likely on the line, Seton Hall dug in and took a huge step toward sticking around in March.
Jared Rhoden hit six free throws in overtime to finish with 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, and the Pirates got past St. John’s in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals Thursday to snap an untimely four-game skid.
Sandro Mamukelashvili had 20 points and 11 rebounds in 44 minutes for the fifth-seeded Pirates (14-12), who desperately needed a win to boost an NCAA resume that seemed pretty solid not so long ago.
“Obviously, we knew that the tournament was at stake,” Rhoden said. “You can’t think about that tournament. We are trying to win this one first.”
Myles Cale added 16 points and eight boards, and Ike Obiagu blocked seven shots before fouling out as Seton Hall advanced to face Georgetown in the first semifinal Friday night at Madison Square Garden. The eighth-seeded Hoyas upset top seed and No. 14 Villanova 72-71 earlier in the day.
“We feel like this is our second home,” Pirates coach Kevin Willard said.
Big East scoring champ Julian Champagnie led St. John’s with 16 points on 7-of-21 shooting and nine rebounds. Rasheem Dunn scored 15 for the fourth-seeded Red Storm (16-11), who went cold after halftime and shot 33% from the floor overall — including 6 of 25 (24%) from 3-point territory.
CREIGHTON 87, BUTLER 56
With coach Greg McDermott back on the bench after a one-game suspension, No. 17 Creighton cruised into the semifinals of the Big East Tournament with an easy victory against Butler on Thursday night.
The second-seeded Bluejays (19-7) advanced to face UConn or DePaul on Friday night at Madison Square Garden. Creighton is in the semifinals for the third time since joining the conference in 2013 and first time since 2017.
Damien Jefferson scored 11 points in the first eight minutes and Marcus Zegarowski led the Bluejays with 18.
Bryce Nze had 21 points to lead No. 10 seed Butler (1015), which trailed by 33 in the second half after edging seventh-seeded Xavier 70-69 in overtime Wednesday night.
McDermott was suspended for the final game of the regular season for making racially insensitive remarks to his players. The 57-year-old coach created a firestorm for twice using the term “plantation” as part of an analogy urging team unity after a recent loss.
The university suspended McDermott indefinitely after he coached the team in a loss last week at Villanova. He missed the season-finale victory at home against Butler on Saturday and was reinstated earlier this week.