The Georgetown men’s basketball team (18-12, 8-9 Big East) fell 101-69 at DePaul (15-13, 7-10 Big East) on Wednesday night. The Blue Demons shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, led by 30 points from senior guard Max Strus. Fellow senior guard Eli Cain dropped 24 points, senior forward Femi Olujobi had 13 points, and sophomore forward Paul Reed added a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guards James Akinjo and Mac McClung scored 13 points each for the Hoyas, but it was nowhere near enough against a hot DePaul squad that earned series split.
It was a markedly poor first half for Georgetown. While the game started 7-5 DePaul, the Blue Demons then went on a 12-0 scoring run to lead 19-5 within the first five minutes. The Hoyas appeared to have settled in over the next five minutes, but couldn’t pull to within single digits consistently, and at 25-15, the Blue Demons took off on a 17-0 run to lead by 27 with 6:44 to go in the half. The Hoyas would stem the bleeding and get points on the board for themselves, but they couldn’t stop DePaul, who followed up their 59-point second half against St. John’s (20-10, 8-9 Big East) with a 54-point first half, with all but two points scored by Strus, Cain, Olujobi, and Reed, all of whom reached double digits by the break. DePaul led 54-31 and shot over 50 percent from 3-point range in the opening period, while Georgetown shot just 35.7 percent from deep and a marginally better 36.7 percent from the field.
The Hoyas fought hard at the start of the second half, cutting DePaul’s lead to 17 with a 7-1 run in the opening two minutes and hung around for much of the half, chipping away to eventually cut DePaul’s lead to 14 by the 11:28 mark. But after a pair of Govan free throws, DePaul went on its third long run of the game, this time a 22-0 spurt that put the game out of reach. Looking to salvage a bit of pride, the Hoyas fought to within 30 points of the Blue Demons, but DePaul continued its hot form, and a pair of free throws in the final minute made the final score 101-69.
This leaves the Hoyas in a five-way tie for third in the conference. They end the season at No. 16 Marquette (23-7, 12-5 Big East) on Saturday, tipping off at 2:30 p.m. ET. For coverage of that game, the rest of the season, and all of Georgetown’s athletic programs, follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter.
