Georgetown men’s basketball (16-13, 7-11 BIG EAST) were outclassed by the No. 22 Marquette Golden Eagles (22-7, 13-5 BIG EAST) 76-61 on Mar. 1. Despite the return of freshman forward Caleb Williams, nightmare starts from the Hoyas’ stars doomed them against the ranked Golden Eagles.
In the first half, this very much looked like a game between a team looking to make a run in March and April, and another who is just fighting to get near .500 in conference play.
Despite the gaudy halftime lead for the Golden Eagles, this one started out back-and-forth, with the teams knotted at nine points after Marquette’s junior forward Ben Gold and senior guard Stevie Mitchell, as well as Georgetown’s sophomore guard Malik Mack and sophomore forward Jordan Burks got going early. From there though, the Golden Eagles would first make a 5-0 run, then a more decisive 11-2 run to take complete control of the game. Gold in particular played a key role as his three triples in the first half each helped crush any Hoya momentum before it had a chance to build.
After having a nice last three games averaging in double figures, Burks did all he could to lead the Hoyas with 5 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals through the first ten minutes of the first, but he did not have much help. Despite playing at an elite level as of late, graduate guard Micah Peavy had a particularly tough first half, as the Marquette defenses hounded him, selling out to stop him. It worked.
While one may have thought coming into the game that this would be a battle between Peavy and Marquette junior guard Kam Jones, the pair would combine for only a measly seven points through 20 minutes.
Outside of Peavy, Mack and junior guard Jayden Epps also had forgettable halves, neither cracking four points as Georgetown rolled into halftime down 39-22, making a staggeringly low 19-percent of their field goal attempts compared to the Golden Eagles 55-percent. Without the free throw line, where the Hoyas were 9-of-13 in the first half, this would have somehow been even uglier. Gold led all scorers with 13 points at the half, while no Hoya had more than six.
Coming out of half, the game turned into a bit of a track meet, with neither side playing great defense. To the Hoyas’ detriment though, they simply could not hit enough shots to keep pace, as Marquette used a 16-5 run out of the half to effectively end the game, now up 55-27 with fifteen minutes to play.
If there was one Hoya hitting shots, though, it was sophomore guard Curtis Williams Jr. After leading the Hoyas in scoring into the half, he hit two triples early in the second to get into double figures. Burks joined him in his effort, continuing to bring in boards, and run well in transition, although turnovers and missed free throws kept him from adding to his scoring tally too much.
Once again Georgetown was letting their opponent get any shot they wanted, as Marquette got great looks and continued their hot shooting from inside the arc into the second half, a growing, concerning theme for Georgetown. By the time the game reached the second media timeout, the Eagles were shooting a scorching 18-of-22 from two, now up 60-35. Without star freshman forward Thomas Sorber, out for the rest of the season, the Hoyas had no answers inside defensively.
With the game out of hand, Peavy finally got going for the Hoyas, becoming the second player from the home team to reach double figures in scoring. But by then four of five Marquette starters had already reached the same feat, with the fifth at nine points. It was utter team domination through 31 minutes by one of the best teams in the conference.
Down more than a dozen points more than halfway through the second half, head coach Ed Cooley did everything he could to re-engage the crowd during timeouts, and it worked, getting the crowd back on their feet and cheering, but even still Marquette was not keen to let Georgetown back in the game. A quick 11-2 run cut the lead to 65-53, but it was less than half of what the Hoyas needed. A 6-0 run by the road team in response then silenced the crowd just as quickly as they had been raised.
The Hoyas shot a much improved 48-percent from the field and 44-percent from three in the second half, but when Mack and Epps shoot a combined 5-of-27 from the field, that just isn’t something that this Georgetown team can overcome. As the final buzzer sounded the Hoyas had lost 76-61. Marquette senior forward David Joplin led the game with 17 points while Peavy led the Hoyas with 15. Williams Jr. also chipped in an efficient 14 points on only seven shots with Burks having a 11 point, 10 rebound double-double on only four shots.
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