Tens of thousands of spectators flooded Capital One Arena for a sold-out matchup between two nationally ranked college basketball teams. It was a potential preview of the Final Four or even the title game, and a throwback to a period of highly competitive basketball in Washington, D.C.
The Georgetown University men’s basketball team was not involved.
Instead, the Hoyas had their own throwback, losing a game where their opponent did not make a single 3-pointer and scored only 51 points. But this game was decidedly in the 21st century.
Georgetown (13-14, 5-11 Big East) fell 51-47 to the Seton Hall University Pirates (19-9, 9-8 Big East) on Feb. 22 at the Prudential Center in one of the most disappointing games of an underwhelming campaign for the Hoyas, marking their fourth loss in a row.
The Hoyas were, in their own way, vintage but to a much more modern era. The same problems that have troubled Georgetown all season — poor shooting (27% from the field), a lethargic second half (outscored by 11 after the break), poor rebounding (outrebounded 44 to 38) and turnovers (13), to name a few — were visible in full force against Seton Hall.
After those three losses, Georgetown Head Coach Ed Cooley made two changes to his starting lineup, sliding in senior center Vince Iwuchukwu and sophomore guard Kayvaun Mulready for sophomore center Julius Halaifonua and sophomore forward Isaiah Abraham. Those changes did little to break the Hoyas’ slump.
The game started slow and remained that way. Iwuchukwu corralled the opening tip to his side, but Seton Hall guard AJ Staton-McCray poked away the first possession. The Pirates failed to score, and the Hoyas opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from junior guard KJ Lewis. Seton Hall left Georgetown open all night to shoot from the perimeter — an effective decision as the Hoyas went only 17% from beyond the arc on a whopping 23 attempts.
Early on, neither side did much of anything resembling offense. By the under-16 timeout, Georgetown held only a narrow 6-4 lead. Four minutes later, the Hoyas’ lead was 7-6. With 10 minutes left in the first half, an and-1 by Seton Hall forward Josh Rivera brought the Pirates to their first lead of the game at 10-9.
After the under-8 timeout, the Hoyas looked to step into control of the game. For those final minutes of the period, Georgetown generated some solid offense and shot at a significantly better pace than any other part of the game. The Hoyas rode a 16-1 run well into the lead in the final minutes of the period. Heading to the locker room, Georgetown led 27-20 at the half.
From there, as Cooley said after the game, the throwback really began.
“I was really disappointed in how the game ended for us, as this has been a repeat story this year up to this point,” Cooley said in the postgame press conference.
It has become a familiar story to Hoya fans — taking a lead into halftime and somehow seeing it fall away over the final 20 minutes of the game.
In the first four minutes of the second period, Seton Hall cut the deficit to three at 29-26, but Georgetown was able to stretch the lead back out to two possessions. The Pirates kept pace with the Hoyas for over 10 minutes as the game remained within striking distance — and Georgetown failed to pull away.
With five minutes to play, and still not much offense to go around, Seton Hall forward Najai Hines drained two free throws to take a 45-44 lead. After that, Georgetown only scored three more points — a tip-in and a free throw by Lewis. The Pirates did not pull away in the final stretch, making no field goals in the final four minutes of the game. But even with a couple of late opportunities, Georgetown could not convert and the scoreline stood.
Cooley, after the game, said the Hoyas played an ugly brand of basketball, referring to James Naismith, the inventor of the sport.
“Naismith is rolling in his grave watching that basketball game. It wasn’t very pretty,” Cooley said. “We did everything we could to lose this game, everything possible to lose this game.”
Cooley said he took some satisfaction in the Hoyas’ successful defensive effort.
“I love your positivity, I do, and right now I need that,” Cooley said to a reporter who asked if the team’s defense was a positive from the game. “I am proud of our men, the way we battle.”
“Our defense has to win games for us, because the ball is not always going to go into the basket,” Cooley added.
Georgetown will look to get some juice against the dead-last Marquette University Golden Eagles (9-18, 4-12 Big East) on Feb. 24 at Capital One Arena.
