Bearcats maul reeling Hoyas in Big East battle

“We need to re-evaluate everything.”

So said John Thompson III after Georgetown (12-7, 3-5 Big East) found itself dropping its fourth straight game in a Wednesday night loss to Cincinnati, 65-57. Once again the Hoyas fell victim to subpar shooting and sloppy play.

“We are at the point now where our backs are against the wall,” Thompson said after the game. “We have to do everything significantly better than we are right now.”

From the beginning of the game neither team looked dominant, keeping pace with each- other by breaking off runs and taking advantage of mistakes and turnovers. The back-and-forth action would continue throughout both halves, which saw nine ties and 10 lead changes.

Although it wasn’t apparent at the time, the turning point of the game came with a little over four minutes remaining in the first half. Going up for an alley-oop from Chris Wright, DaJuan Summers was knocked out of the air and landed awkwardly on his ankle. No foul was called, but Summers limped to the Georgetown bench and never returned.

“DaJuan gets hurt, and that is unfortunate,” Thompson said. “The timing is unfortunate.”

In his 13 minutes of play, Summers had looked like he was on his way to reversing an uncharacteristically poor performance against Seton Hall. He was 3-for-5 with seven points before the injury.

The Hoyas were never able to make up for the junior’s absence. Sophomore Nikita Mescheriakov surprisingly garnered most of the extra minutes, but despite grabbing seven rebounds, he converted only one of six shots for three points.

“[Mescheriakov] got some rebounds and loose balls,” Thompson said. “He came in and gave us some energy.”

Georgetown’s bench accounted for just 11 points, compared to 27 points for the Bearcat reserves.

The Bearcat who hurt Georgetown the most was junior guard Deonta Vaughn, who led all scorers with 20 points.

Entering the second half trailing by one, the Hoyas never seemed out of contention. Georgetown held the lead as late as the 4:38 mark but made just one basket the rest of the way, sealing their fate.

Once again poor shooting contributed to the Hoyas’ loss. The team finished exactly 40 percent from the field, and only 29.4 percent from beyond the arc. Greg Monroe contributed 10 points and eight rebounds, but was just 4-for-11 from the floor. Austin Freeman had 14 points, but was only 4-for-12 from the field. Chris Wright may have been the one bright spot for the Hoyas, scoring a team-leading 15 points and converting seven of 12 shots from the field.

Wednesday’s loss was more than just the story of a team that couldn’t find its touch, however. The Hoyas looked out of sorts on the court, breaking off runs and then quickly receding after a series of miscues. The Bearcats’ full court pressure clearly affected the Hoyas, forcing a number of turnovers and otherwise disrupting the flow of the game.

“Sometimes you see the effect in the other team not making shots,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said of the press. “You are wearing them down, and they have to set it up differently.”

The question remains how Georgetown can pull itself out of its current slump. With a trip to conference co-leader Marquette on Saturday, there isn’t much time to look for answers.

“I don’t know if we have a specific long-term solution,” Thompson said. “The solution is in that locker room. We have 13 players and several coaches, and we need to collectively come up with a solution.”