After a disastrous Thanksgiving that saw Georgetown University men’s basketball tumble out of the tournament bubble, the Hoyas bounced back with a high-scoring 90-81 win over the UMBC Retrievers Dec. 3 at Capital One Arena.
Georgetown (6-2) took the lead on the first possession and never looked back, dominating UMBC (5-3) on both ends of the court. The Hoyas racked up a season-high 25 assists against only 6 turnovers as excellent ball movement spread out the scoring. All five Georgetown starters finished with double-digit scoring and four — junior guards Malik Mack and KJ Lewis, sophomore forward Caleb Williams and sophomore center Julius Halaifonua — scored 15 or more points.
Williams led the way for the Hoyas with 18 points, as well as 2 assists and 8 rebounds. Halaifonua contributed 4 assists — his Georgetown high and a crucial stat as he has become the team’s only reliable center option.
Capital One Arena was near deserted, in a complete departure from the packed environment for the last home game, the Nov. 15 win over Clemson University. The student section began the game with under 15 members, and slowly ticked up to around 50 by the end of the game. A final announced attendance of 3,436 left the cavernous arena quiet and less than a quarter full.
Halaifanoa easily claimed the opening tip, and Georgetown immediately got to business on a paint jumper from Caleb Williams to open the scoring. The Hoyas played a seamless first half that saw long unbroken runs of play, allowing them to open up an early lead over the Retrievers. For example, the under-12 timeout, which comes at the first clock stoppage after 12:00 shows on the clock, was at 8:02.
The Hoyas distributed the ball well all game — their 25 assists was a record high for Georgetown during Ed Cooley’s time at head coach, and their 6 turnovers their second-lowest this season.
The Hoyas took that early lead into halftime, leading 45-37.
After conceding a layup to Retrievers guard Jah’Likai King and a jumper to Retrievers forward Josh Odunowo to cut the deficit down to 4, the Hoyas went on a dominating 17-0 run, headlined by a nifty layup from sophomore forward Isaiah Abraham. Georgetown held UMBC around that distance, taking a 70-50 lead into the under-12 timeout.
However, with six minutes left the Retrievers began to claw the game back. After switching to a full-court press, UMBC put together a couple strong possessions to crawl back into the game. Cooley was forced to leave four of his starters (plus graduate guard Jeremiah Williams, who played more minutes than Abraham) for the rest of the game, as his defense struggled to put the game away.
The Retrievers were able to claw it back to a 3-score game, but no closer as the Hoyas wrapped up the win.
In the postgame press conference, Cooley was about as unsatisfied as one can be after a 90-point winning performance. He said Georgetown’s defense was problematic, and needs to be a point of emphasis going forward.
“I did not like our defensive intensity,” Cooley said. “The discipline side of our defense, I’m a little frustrated with. If you’re going to be an elite team — a tournament team — you need to be a disciplined defensive team, because offensively, we are going to score.”
“We’ve got some things to address defensively,” Cooley added. “Practice is going to be very demanding over the next 48 hours with respect to defensive discipline and concentration.”
Cooley added that the rotation may begin to shift, as junior guard DeShawn Harris-Smith’s availability remains in doubt as he deals with an illness and graduate guard Langston Love continues to recover from myriad lower body injuries.
“I’m not saying, ‘I like this one. I like that one.’ I see five Georgetown men out there competing the best they can,” Cooley told The Hoya. “Do what you got to do to win the game.”
The Hoyas next will head south for a challenging matchup against No. 16 University of North Carolina (7-1) Sunday, Dec. 7 at 5 p.m.
