The Georgetown men’s basketball team (4-3, Big East) will look to extend its three-game winning streak when it returns to action at Verizon Center Monday night to take on Brown (3-5, Ivy League). Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.
The Hoyas are coming off an emotional 79-72 victory over Syracuse on Saturday. Senior center Bradley Hayes led the team with 21 points and eight rebounds in a wire-to-wire domination, as Georgetown found ways to score against the vaunted zone and smothered the Orangemen defensively. For Hayes, the strong performance was just the most recent display of improvement in the seven-foot senior’s game. After scoring just 30 points total through his first three years, Hayes has emerged as an interior force for the Hoyas, with a deft jump-hook and solid rim protection.
“Bradley was outstanding today, said Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III after Saturday’s game.
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“He was a presence at the defensive end as well. He made the right decisions. That is what we now expect and need from him.”
“I don’t think [Syracuse was] expecting that,” Thompson added. “He was a presence and they had to deal with that. He will have a lot more moments like today, before the season is over.”
Senior guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera leads the Hoyas’ balanced scoring attack averaging 15 points per game. Smith-Rivera, sophomore forward Isaac Copeland, Hayes, and sophomore guard L.J. Peak all average 10 or more points per game for the balanced Hoya offense.
Brown is fresh off a 76-68 win against Bryant (2-7, NEC) in which the Bears made 12 three-pointers and held the opposition to 34 percent shooting. Junior guard Tavon Blackmon led the way with 19 points, and senior forward Cedric Kuakumensah added 14 points and six rebounds. Kuakumensah comes in averaging 13.0 ppg and 10.1 rpg and is tied for the all-time Ivy League career blocks record, with 252. In their two matchups against currently ranked opponents this season, Brown lost to Providence (8-1, Big East), 94-73, and SMU (6-0, AAC), 77-69.
The Bears are undersized compared to the Hoyas, who start three players 6’7” and taller. Kukumensah, at 6’9”, is the tallest Brown player who sees regular minutes, and starts alongside four guards. Brown ranks just 265th in offensive efficiency and 202nd in defensive efficiency, to the Hoyas’ 23rd and 46th respective rankings. The Bears, however, play at a faster tempo than the Hoyas, averaging 4.7 more possessions per game.
Monday’s game is the fourth game of a seven-game homestand for Georgetown, after which they only play one game, at Charlotte (1-7, CUSA) on Dec. 22, before starting Big East play at DePaul (4-3, Big East) on December 30.
