The Georgetown men’s basketball team (3-0, Big East) heads to the Caribbean for the Jersey Mike’s Jamaica Classic, where they will take on Loyola Marymount (3-0, WCC) and South Florida (2-0, AAC) on Friday and Sunday, respectively. Tip-off on Friday is set for 7 p.m. ET, while the Sunday game will begin at noon.
The Hoyas are coming off of their third straight win, and first road win against Illinois (1-1, Big Ten) on Tuesday. Georgetown came away victorious in the back-and-forth contest thanks to stellar play from freshman guard James Akinjo, who had 19 points and seven assists on the night, and freshman forward Josh LeBlanc who added 14 points and seven rebounds in his 21 minutes off the bench. Freshman guard Mac McClung added 12 points, while senior center Jessie Govan had 11 points and six rebounds. Govan, despite a quiet game for his standards against the Illini, leads the team in scoring and rebounding thus far with 16.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
Like Georgetown, the Loyola Marymount Lions enter the game unbeaten and with three wins on the season, including one over UNLV (1-1, Mountain West) in Las Vegas. The Lions have been led thus far by senior guard James Bateman, who has 19.7 points and five assists per game. Against, UNLV, he dropped 28 points, and against Cal State Northridge (0-2, Big West) he had 10 assists. He is aided by the 7-foot-3 junior center Mattias Markusson, who has 10.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. He will likely be tasked with going up against Govan for the bulk of the game.
On Sunday, the Hoyas will take on the South Florida Bulls, who also enter the Jamaica Classic undefeated. The Bulls have four players averaging double-digit scoring over their two games thus far, led by sophomore guard David Collins who has 16 points per game. Redshirt senior guard T.J. Lang, sophomore guard/forward Justin Brown, and redshirt junior Laquincy Rideau have all averaged 12.5 points thus far, while Rideau has added 7.5 assists per game as well. The young Hoyas back court will be tasked with containing these prolific guards.
The Jamaica Classic is not only the first non-conference tournament the Hoyas have played in during head coach Patrick Ewing’s tenure, but serves as a homecoming for Ewing, a Jamaica native himself. Sophomore guard Jahvon Blair and junior guard Jagan Mosely also have Jamaican roots, which makes the trip that much more special.
“I thought it would be great for the team to see where I came from, to see my homeland,” Ewing said of the choice to play in the Jamaica classic. “When it was brought to my attention that they had a tournament there and we did all the research, we thought it would be a great, great thing. Plus we also have two players on the team who are of Jamaican descent, so we thought it’d be a good idea to go back.”
Both games can be streamed on CBS Sports, and live stats can be found on guhoyas.com. Follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter for more Georgetown basketball news and coverage of sports on the Hilltop.
