Georgetown made history by winning the inaugural Big East Tournament, but if the Hoyas are going to place an all too appropriate bookend on this nostalgia-filled week, they will have to go through an all too familiar foe.
Despite coughing up a 16-point first-half lead against ninth-seeded Cincinnati, the top-seeded Hoyas’ smothering defense sustained its reputation with a 62-43 win yesterday at Madison Square Garden, setting up tonight’s throwback semifinal with Syracuse in the rivals’ final Big East showdown.
Georgetown (25-5) has won 12 of its past 13 games, in search of a
No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a record-setting eighth Big East Tournament title, having avenged last year’s double-overtime quarterfinal loss to the Bearcats (22-11) with what may be the best defense John Thompson III has had in his 10 seasons with the Hoyas.
“It’s up there,” the Georgetown coach said. “Most of the time people think about being selfish, you talk about offensively, but I think on the defensive end they’ve done a good job helping for each other, covering for each other, not just focusing on my man, but realizing I have to help my teammate.”
The game was a near-guarantee to be a grind, sticking to script as the Hoyas took a 24-8 lead into the final five minutes of the first half behind Jabril Trawick’s nine points, but Cincinnati’s Cashmere Wright carried the Bearcats back, hitting three 3-pointers to spark a 16-4 run and cut the deficit to 29-24 at the half.
Wright could do no wrong, hitting a game-tying 3-pointer and followed with a floater to give Cincinnati a 33-31 lead with 16:22 remaining, finishing with a team-high 14 points, but the Hoyas clamped down on the perimeter, and the Bearcats finished out on a 4-of-16 skid from the field, with leading scorer Sean Kilpatrick shooting 2-of-12 with four points.
“We’re not a car. We didn’t run out of gas. We couldn’t score the ball,” said Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin, who said there is “no question” his team belongs in the NCAA Tournament.
Otto Porter Jr. scored a game-high 18 points, hitting all 11 free-throw attempts, but Cincinnati fixated its attention on the Big East Player of the Year, allowing Markel Starks and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera to combine for 27 points on 11-of-21 shooting.
howard.kussoy@nypost.com