If only Georgetown had not denied Marquette's sideline inbounds pass with 2:37 left in Thursday night's game at the Bradley Center.

Then Marquette coach Tom Crean would not have called a set play that resulted in a Joe Chapman three-pointer that put the team in front for good.

With the Golden Eagles down 49-48, Steve Novak was ready to inbound the ball when Crean audibled from the bench. Freshman Jerel McNeal took Novak's spot and passed it to the senior to set the play in motion.

"The key to the whole play was Steve, the way he executed the play," Crean said. "He had to get open and had to make decisions in the span of milliseconds."

Novak quickly handed the ball off to freshman Dominic James, whom Chris Grimm had set free with a screen. James drove the ball to the basket and kicked it out to Chapman for the crucial go-ahead three-pointer.

"There's no question that everyone on the team has faith in him to knock down big shots," Novak said.

The play call from Crean was one of many coaching decisions that worked throughout his team's 57-51 victory. Marquette constantly changed defensive looks and disrupted Georgetown's patient offense.

"With this game, we felt that this was our best avenue to be aggressive and have a chance to win," Crean said.

The Marquette coach made smart choices, particularly down the stretch. After Chapman's three-pointer put the team up 51-49, the Golden Eagles' two-three zone forced the Hoyas into a turnover.

On Georgetown's next possession, Marquette switched to man-to-man and made its opponent run off 21 seconds in the final minute before the Hoyas' Darrel Owens rushed his shot and missed.

While Crean kept Georgetown on its toes, it was not as if he was reinventing the defensive playbook.

"They were just going man and zone, back and forth," said Georgetown coach John Thompson III. "That's not that out of the ordinary."

But Marquette's effectiveness at slowing down Jeff Green and Brandon Bowman was certainly nothing ordinary.

Green, who had averaged 17.3 points per game in his three games prior to Thursday, went 1-of-6 for two points. Bowman, the Hoyas' leading scorer, shot just 3-of-9 for seven points.

Even the Hoyas' most effective player on the night, center Roy Hibbert, who scored eight points on four attempts in the first five and a half minutes, went the next 14 minutes in the first half without taking a shot.