In their Big East home opener on Jan. 7, the Georgetown men’s basketball team (6-6, 0-1 Big East) was trounced by Marquette (10-6, 2-3 Big East), losing 92-64. Despite the 28-point loss, the Hoyas saw strong performances from sophomore forward Collin Holloway, who scored a team-high 17 points, sophomore guard Dante Harris with 15 points and freshman guard Aminu Mohammed with 12 points. Coached by the highly respected Shaka Smart, the Golden Eagles were led in play by freshman forward Olivier-Maxience Prosper, who recorded a career-high 22 points and shot 9-for-11 from the field.
Despite missing the past four games due to coronavirus complications, the Hoyas got off to a strong start as junior center Malcolm Wilson scored the opening bucket off of a pass from Mohammed. The first ten minutes of the game were marked by competitive back-and-forth play. During this time, a Harris jumper and a three-pointer from graduate guard Kaiden Rice generated five unanswered points to put the Hoyas up 7-4 three minutes into the half. Unfortunately, Georgetown could not keep up their momentum, and despite ending the half on an 11-0 run and outscoring the Golden Eagles 13-3 over the last four minutes of play, the Hoyas ended the half down by eight, 37-45.
The Hoyas opened the second half of the game by extending their run and bringing the score within three points, thanks to a Wilson layup. Despite the build in momentum, Georgetown was unable to reclaim the lead and allowed Marquette to go on a run of their own. Redshirt freshman forward Justin Lewis led the Golden Eagles on a 7-0 run. Although Georgetown was able to make back some points from free throws and a Harris layup, Marquette’s other redshirt forward Oso Ighadoro responded and led the team on a 17-0 run.
With 11:16 to play in the second half, Marquette led Georgetown by 24 points, 72-48. Holloway attempted to lead the Hoyas on another run after sinking a three-pointer with a little over eight minutes left, but again the Golden Eagles responded. Marquette racked up ten more points, ending the game with a devastating final score of 92-64.
Georgetown’s disappointing Big East opener was defined by Golden Eagle runs and Hoya mistakes. The Hoyas had 15 turnovers which Marquette used to their advantage and turned into 29 points in transition. Georgetown’s defense was also vulnerable, allowing Marquette to score 56 points in the paint. The Hoyas’ offense failed to make up for their lack of defense, scoring just 28 of their 64 points from the paint. After the game, Head Coach Patrick Ewing remarked on his frustration with the team’s performance. “We did not compete … Every effort thing that we needed to do, we didn’t do it,” said Ewing. “If we want to be successful in the BIG EAST, we have to compete every night.”
The Hoyas will look to improve and continue conference play versus Butler (8-6, 1-2 Big East) on Thursday, Jan. 13 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will also be broadcast live on FS1. Follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter for more updates and coverage of all winter sports at Georgetown.
Contrary to popular belief, she believes Georgetown is still a basketball school and will die on that hill