The last time Georgetown University played George Washington University (GWU) in men’s basketball — on Dec. 16, 1981 at the Capital Center in Landover, Md. — the world was a very different place.
Ronald Reagan had just begun his first term as president. The Washington, D.C. Metro was still under construction. Georgetown just joined the fledgling Big East conference and was a season off its first Elite Eight appearance.
College basketball was a very different place, too. Transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) deals were concepts decades away from invention.
Georgetown and GWU are meeting in a public exhibition, evidence of the changes to the sport. The NCAA is allowing teams to play two preseason exhibitions for the first time this season, replacing the past practice of closed-door ‘secret scrimmages.’
The Georgetown Hoyas took down the GWU Revolutionaries 73-64 in a tightly-fought preseason scrimmage Oct. 18.
Although the result did not count, neither the team nor the fans seemed to know that. GWU announced that the game, at the Smith Center, was sold out, and that sell-out crowd was loud, especially the game’s physicality increased.
Georgetown started three returners — sophomore forward Caleb Williams, junior guard Malik Mack and sophomore center Julius Halaifonua — and two transfers — junior guards KJ Lewis and DeShawn Harris-Smith. The Hoyas were without graduate guard Langston Love, who had been struggling with an injury and participated in warm-ups only. Besides Love, every scholarship player saw playing time during the scrimmage.
Halaifonua won the opening tip for the Hoyas. On the first possession, Lewis turned the ball over, giving the Revolutionaries a fastbreak layup to open up scoring.
Mack responded quickly, nailing a three-pointer for Georgetown’s first lead. GWU guard Garrett Jones made another layup, and Mack was fouled on his three-point attempt, making all three for a 6-4 lead.
Center Rafael Castro dunked over Halaifonua to tie the game at 6. After a jump ball, Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley turned to his bench for the first time, subbing in senior center Vince Iwuchukwu for Halaifonua.
Another GWU dunk, this time by forward Tyrone Marshall, meant the Revolutionaries had scored eight of their first nine points in the paint.
The Hoyas finally responded with a wide-open three from Williams, before the game started to settle into a more even pace. At the first media timeout, the teams were tied 9-9.
Out of the break, Lewis retrieved his own rebound off a missed layup and kicked it out to Williams for another three. Again, though, GWU responded with a fastbreak dunk. This back-and-forth stretch continued for a few possessions, with both teams missing good three-point shots, but Georgetown led 14-13.
On the next possession, sophomore guard Kayvaun Mulready ended the dry shooting streak with a made three. A made layup from sophomore forward Isaiah Abraham gave Georgetown a 19-13 lead at the under-12-minute timeout.
The Georgetown run continued as Abraham cut to the basket for an uncontested finger roll, until GWU guard Tre Dinkins finally broke the Revolutionaries’ bad shooting spell — making 2 threes as their defense forced two turnovers on back-to-back possessions.
GWU’s 9-3 run came to an end at the third media timeout of the first half, the Hoyas still leading 25-22.
The Revolutionaries then started applying defensive pressure, shifting into a full-court man defense and giving Georgetown a hard time getting the ball out of their own half. On one possession, the Revolutionaries deflected the ball three times before the Hoyas ultimately turned it over on a ten-second violation.
Both teams then descended into sloppy play, and scoring all but stopped for almost three minutes at the end of the half.
Caleb Williams finally ended the cold stretch with a drilled three-pointer to stretch the lead to 33-24. The next time around, Mack dished to Halaifonua in the paint for a nice layup.
Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley called a timeout to set up his defense, and Harris-Smith exchanged words and a few pushes with the GWU huddle, as the game remained incredibly physical for a preseason exhibition.
To end the half, GWU guard Trey Autry banked in an improbable three-pointer at the buzzer, falling backward between two defenders. Georgetown entered the break with the same narrow lead they had for much of the period, with the score 38-32.
At the half, the Hoyas swapped out Halaifonua for Iwuchukwu in the starting line-up. On the first possession, Mack missed a step-back, one-legged mid-range shot, but Caleb Williams tapped it back in for a put-back. Georgetown and GWU then went back and forth with made layups.
Harris-Smith and Lewis forced consecutive turnovers, but the Hoyas were unable to score on either possession. As Halaifonua made his first appearance of the half, he threw the ball away. Into the under-16 timeout, Georgetown led 44-38.
Immediately after, Mulready missed an open three, and GWU responded with a made three of their own to make the game the closest it had been since the beginning of the first half.
The Hoyas responded, kicking it around the outside for yet another Caleb Williams three. A Mulready long-range make extended the lead back to 50-43.
Mulready, who had entered the transfer portal after struggling to break into the rotation last year, started to heat up and the offense began to run through him into the under-12 timeout, where Georgetown led 53-46.
Out of the break, Mulready nailed another three, turned to the Georgetown bench and flapped his arms like a bird — the bench mirrored his celebration. Redshirt sophomore Jayden Fort checked into the game and slammed home an alley-oop to make it 60-49, forcing the Revolutionaries’ coach Chris Caputo to call timeout as chants of “Hoya Saxa” rang around the Smith Center.
After the timeout, GWU’s offense offered glimmers of hope, and the Hoyas were unable to separate themselves. They entered the under-8 timeout with Georgetown still holding a 62-54 lead.
A couple of key plays from Hoya stars kept the lead intact down the stretch. After a Mack turnover put the Revolutionaries on the fastback, Lewis chased down Dinkins for an emphatic block. Back on offense, Jeremiah Williams made a slick behind-the-back bounce pass to set Lewis up for a lay-up.
At the final media timeout, the Hoyas led 67-59. Both teams kept trading makes and turnovers, but the lead remained set between 8 and 10 points as the clock wound down. With two minutes left, a Bubu Benjamin three made GWU’s deficit 6 points, but a Mack step-back from midrange put the Hoyas back up by 8.
As the clock ran down and the Revolutionaries were forced to foul, their press forced Cooley to burn two timeouts, but they were ultimately unable to mount a last-minute comeback as time expired.
For Georgetown, Caleb Williams led the way with 20 points, 1 assist and 6 rebounds. Mack and Mulready followed him with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Mack also contributed 4 assists in his first game as the Hoyas’ undisputed ball-handler.
Cooley said he was proud of the effort his players showed in front of a tough away crowd.
“We got better today,” Cooley said at a postgame press conference. “Are we going to play 11 guys the whole year? Probably not.”
Half of GWU’s 64 points came from inside the paint. Georgetown rotated between Iwuchukwu and Halaifonua at center, but Cooley said he was not ready to judge their performances.
“I thought when we executed some things, they seemed rushed. I didn’t have the rim protection that we’re going to need,” Cooley said.
Cooley said he was proud of the team’s on-ball defense, but that the off-ball defense needed improvement and that he values tough defenders.
“I’m not going to have too many weak guys out there,” Cooley told The Hoya. “It’s not a democracy on defense, it’s 100% a dictatorship.”
Caputo, in his press conference, appreciated the crowd, GWU’s largest at home since 2016, and the opportunity to play Georgetown.
“I would love to do this as a real game, but I also told Ed if you want to do this here, same time, same place, that would be great,” Caputo told The Hoya. “I don’t see a downside to it.”
The Hoyas will play their second and final preseason scrimmage against the University of Kentucky Oct. 30 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
