A Georgetown men’s basketball trip to Maui that started with promise sputtered to a close on Wednesday afternoon, as the Hoyas (2-4, Big East) fell to the Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-1, Big 12), 97-70. Graduate senior guard Rodney Pryor led the way with 15 points for Georgetown, which never threatened Oklahoma State after squandering an early eight point lead. Junior guard Jeremy Carroll led the Cowboys with 20 points off the bench.
The Hoyas failed to establish any momentum after racing out to an 8-0 advantage, as the Cowboys took the lead for good, at 14-13, with 13:42 left in the first half. Oklahoma State was quick to the ball and alert on defense in the first half, forcing ten Georgetown turnovers and scoring 15 points off those miscues. With five seconds left in the first half, the Cowboys advanced the ball down the court and hit a buzzer-beating three, courtesy of freshman guard Thomas Dzigawa, to take a 50-35 lead into the break.
The Hoyas could not curb their turnover woes in the second half either, as they coughed the ball up a whopping 19 times. Oklahoma State capitalized off of three of these to start the half, scoring seven quick points to force Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III to call a timeout with his team down 57-35. But the deficit would only grow for the Hoyas, who eventually found themselves staring at their largest hole of the season at 92-61 with 4:28 remaining.
A trip that began with an encouraging performance against No. 13 Oregon finished with a whimper, as the Hoyas followed up a thrashing on the backboards against No. 16 Wisconsin (4-1, Big Ten) with an apathetic showing against the Pokes. The hot shooting that Georgetown found against the Ducks cooled off against Wisconsin and Oklahoma State, but more importantly the Hoyas did not show the fight necessary to string together three wins in three days. Performance in November is not inherently predictive of season-long performance, but it serves as a strong barometer of what a team needs to improve on to meet its goals. The coming weeks will tell us if this Georgetown team will make amends to its inconsistent and often lackluster effort in Maui, or if they will allow the last two games to define their season.
The Hoyas return to action Sunday against Howard University (0-4, MEAC) at the Verizon Center. Tip-off is at 1:30 and the game will be televised on FS1.
