DEPAUL DESERVED TO WIN (AGAIN)

That's a wrap on the 2024-25 Big East season.

Well, that’s that. If you had Layden Blocker and N.J. Benson as the assassins who would murder Georgetown’s season, you win.

Blocker, a transfer guard from Arkansas who shot 4-of-6 from three and finished with 16 points and six rebounds, and Benson, who scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, en route to a 71-67 victory over the Hoyas (17-15, 8-12) in the opening round of the Big East Tournament.

Benson, who transferred to the Blue Demons (14-18, 4-16) after two seasons at Missouri State, had missed the previous month with a hand injury.

“He meant everything,” first-year DePaul coach Chris Holtmann told Peacock’s John Fanta after the game. “I love the kid. I love the kid! He was begging to come back. In an era when kids don’t always want to come back when they are a little banged up, we had to hold him back. It’s refreshing to coach a kid who was dying to play.”

Georgetown, playing without 3rd Team All-Big East center Thomas Sorber and fellow freshman Caleb Williams, a guard/forward who’d become one of the better defenders on the team, lost to the Blue Demons for the third time this season.

“Three games in a row,” Hoyas coach Ed Cooley said, “where it all played out the same way.”

And, for the third time, Georgetown just wasn’t good enough.