Marquette Golden Eagles (9th) Big East (13 - 13)

Jahvon Blair scored 14 of his 20 points after halftime as eighth-seeded Georgetown posted a 68-49 win over ninth-seeded Marquette on Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Big East tournament.

The Hoyas (10-12) won their first game in the tournament since beating DePaul in 2015. They advanced to face top-seeded Villanova, which posted double-digit victories over Georgetown in both regular-season matchups.

Blair came off the bench for his third straight game and made 8 of 14 shots from the floor to help the Hoyas get coach Patrick Ewing his first conference tournament win.

Qudus Wahab added a career-high 19 points and seven rebounds for the Hoyas, who shot 39.3 percent and held a commanding rebounding 46-31 edge and a 20-4 edge on second-chance points.

Georgetown's other three starters -- Jamorko Pickett, Dante Harris and Chudier Bile -- were a combined 5 of 30 from the floor. Despite their struggles, the Hoyas won for the seventh time in 11 games since losing five in a row from Dec. 20-Jan. 9.

Marquette ended Wednesday with four wins in its final five regular-season games. The Golden Eagles scored their fewest points of the season and failed to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since joining the conference in 2005-06.

D.J. Carton led the Golden Eagles with 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting. Carton was Marquette's only double-figure scorer as leading scorer Dawson Garcia was held to nine points while Greg Elliott and Jamal Cain were held to six points apiece and combined to shoot 5-of-18 from the floor.

Marquette (13-14) finished the game by shooting 36.2 percent, missed 19 of 24 3-point tries and committed 16 turnovers.

After Marquette took an early lead, Georgetown used a 12-4 run that spanned 9:53 to get a 22-8 lead on a 3-point play by Wahab with 7:14 left. During Georgetown's blitz, Marquette missed 11 of 13 shots and the Golden Eagles then missed their final nine shots of the half as Georgetown ripped off 10 straight points and took a 32-14 lead on Pickett's jumper with 11 seconds remaining.

Marquette made a small dent in the deficit, getting with 39-25 on a layup by Cain with 15:19 left but less than three minutes later Wahab's layup hiked Georgetown's lead to 43-25. The Hoyas then opened a 48-29 lead on a 3-pointer by Blair with 9:29 left and finished it off when Carey hit a 3-pointer with 5:14 remaining.

--Field Level Media