NEW YORK — NJ Benson scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half as 10th-seeded DePaul continued its improvement with a 71-67 victory over seventh-seeded Georgetown on Wednesday night in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
The Blue Demons (14-18), who went 3-29 last season, will continue coach Chris Holtmann’s first season with a matchup against No. 2 seed Creighton in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Benson made 7 of 8 shots and scored 11 straight DePaul points to turn a 51-51 tie with 13:20 left into a 62-55 lead with just over eight minutes to go when he muscled his way inside for a layup.
DePaul recovered after blowing a 15-point lead in the first half, and the Blue Demons beat Georgetown for the third time this season. They also won an opening-round game of the tourney for the second time in three seasons.
Layden Blocker added 16 points for DePaul, which shot 51 percent. Troy D’Amico and CJ Gunn chipped in 11 apiece for the Blue Demons, who shot 56.6 percent in beating Georgetown on Saturday.
DePaul survived on Wednesday despite committing 15 turnovers.
Micah Peavy scored 26 points to lead Georgetown (17-15), which lost for the fifth time in six games. Drew Fielder and Curtis Willimas Jr. added 11 apiece, but Jayden Epps was held to 10 on 3-on-13 shooting as the Hoyas shot 41.4 percent and missed 15 of 20 attempts on 3-pointers.
DePaul hit three treys in 19-2 run and upped their lead to 27-12 on an uncontested alley-oop dunk by JJ Traynor and a jumper in the lane by Gunn with 9:26 remaining.
Georgetown scored 12 straight points to get within 29-26 on a basket by Fielder with just under six minutes left.
Rivera’s step-back 3-pointer forged a 51-51 tie with 13:20 left, and Benson scored inside to snap the tie with 12:41 left. After Benson’s run of points, D’Amico finished a three-point play with 6:06 left to hike DePaul’s lead to 65-56.
Traynor’s off-balance tip-in put DePaul ahead 70-64 with 69 seconds left, and the Hoyas were within 70-67 on Peavy’s 3-point play.
After D’Amico missed a 3-point attempt late in the shot clock with 23 seconds left, Epps airballed the front end of a 1-and-1 at the free-throw line with 11 seconds left, and Gunn split a pair of free throws for the final margin.
–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media
