On Feb. 1, Georgetown men’s basketball (6-13, 0-8 Big East) came up short against the Pirates of Seton Hall (13-7, 4-6 Big East) by a score of 70-63. With the loss, the Hoyas remain winless in conference play and have now gone a brutal nine games in a row without a win.
The matchup started favorably for Georgetown, as star freshman Aminu Mohammed opened the scoring with a nice jumper early on. He went on to score the Hoyas’ first five points and give the team an early lead in what would be a very cagey back-and-forth affair with the Pirates in the first half. Junior big man Timothy Ighoefe struggled on the night offensively, getting his lone basket early in the first half. Graduate Donald Carey was involved to help Georgetown’s cause, leading the team with 15 points by the end of the game.
Seton Hall was carried by the performance of Tray Jackson, who finished 5-9 from three and ended the night with a game-leading 21 points. He helped the Pirates begin to pull ahead toward the end of the first half, giving them a lead by as many as eight points. Sophomore Dante Harris helped the Hoyas start to chip away at the deficit after the game went almost two-and-a-half minutes without a basket. Bad fouls from the Hoyas’ offense gave the Pirates free points via free throws with just eight seconds left in the half to extend their lead to ten. Kaiden Rice sunk a buzzer-beating three-pointer to reduce the Pirates’ lead to seven points going into the second half, 35-28.
Sloppy basketball from both teams meant that it would take 2:20 to get the first basket of the half, a dunk from Tray. Jared Rhoden complimented him to extend the lead to 11 for the Pirates, who smelled blood in the water as their bench got rowdier with every possession.
Despite the fact that it took five minutes for the Hoyas to get going offensively in the second half, Georgetown was not backing down. Carey and Rice hit three-pointers to immediately cut the lead to just five points in a matter of 30 seconds. The Hoyas seemed to really pick up steam with a fastbreak three-point shot from Mohammed from the corner which cut the deficit to two points. The 3,462 fans in attendance at the cavernous Capital One Arena began to really get loud, as back-to-back buckets by Carey gave Georgetown its first lead of the half. The Hoyas’ lead was capitalized by a commanding dunk from freshman Ryan Mutombo, but unfortunately, the lead would only last for about four minutes before the Pirates took back the momentum and the arena fell back into a tame atmosphere. After less than ideal shot selection towards the end of the game, the Hoyas were forced to start fouling the Pirates, ultimately falling to Seton Hall, 70-63.
Georgetown men’s basketball is back in action Thursday, Feb. 3 at McDonough Arena against St. John’s. It will be the first Big East game with fans played at the historic gymnasium since 1984. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m., and the game will be open to student season ticket holders who reserved a ticket in advance. Follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter for more updates and coverage of all Georgetown sports.
