Georgetown is getting the game everyone wanted to see.
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 Thursday at Madison Square Garden, setting up Friday’s throwback semifinal with Syracuse for the rivals’ final showdown in the Big East.
Georgetown (25-5) has won 12 of its past 13 games, keeping alive its hopes of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a record-setting eighth Big East Championship, having avenged a double-overtime loss to the Bearcats (22-11) in last year’s quarterfinals, with what may be the best defense John Thompson III has ever had.
“It’s up there,” the Georgetown coach said. “Most of the team 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 and sparking a 16-4 run to cut the deficit to 29-24 at the half.
Wright could do no wrong, hitting a game-tying 3-pointer less than two minutes into the second half and following 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, as the Bearcats finished the game 4-of-16 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 said, who said there is “no question” his team belongs in the NCAA tournament.
“Georgetown is a low possession game. They’re going to work you deep in the clock. That’s what they do. Possessions get magnified just because there’s fewer possessions when you play them in a game.”
Otto Porter Jr. scored a game-high 18 points, on 11 perfect free throw attempts, but Cincinatti fixated its attention on the Big East Player of the Year like the national media, leaving Markel Starks and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera free to operate one-on-one. The guards combined for 27 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the field.
“I think more of the strategy for them is to stop him and kind of worry less about the other guys on our team,” Smith-Rivera said. “So, it definitely helps.”
Starks jumped in, a bit more offended by the extra opportunities.
“But we’re all on the scouting report,” Starks said. “Knowing that going into games that he’s going to have that attention, we have to step up. It’s not, we don’t just say, ‘Hey, it’s just Otto.’ No, we play as a team.”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com