Ed Cooley finally got the chance to defeat his past program. Two seasons after the Georgetown University men’s basketball team head coach departed from 12 seasons as head coach at Providence College, Cooley finally got his win over the Friars on his fifth try as Georgetown (16-10, 7-8 Big East) delivered a convincing 93-72 win over the Providence College Friars (12-15, 6-10 Big East) Feb. 19.
The win came at an emotional time for Cooley, after his mother, Jane Cooley, passed away Feb. 17. The arena held a moment of silence for Cooley’s mother ahead of the game. Junior guard Jayden Epps said the team had a strong desire to deliver a win for Cooley during a difficult time for the coach and his family.
“When you’re playing for a guy like that, when you’re playing for somebody who just cares about people genuinely, it’s easy to go out there and play hard for him and give it your all for him,” Epps said in a postgame press conference. “We wanted to win this game for coach, we know how much it meant to him, we know what he’s going through, so we went out there and got it done.”
Ahead of the game, the Hoyas’ first win against Providence since early 2021 seemed like it would be an uphill battle, with the team missing two key starters — first-year guard Caleb Williams due to concussion protocol and first-year sensation center Thomas Sorber due to a lower-body injury. Sorber was present with a boot on his left leg during the game, but neither player is expected to miss much time. Sophomore forward Jordan Burks replaced Sorber, and Epps returned to the starting lineup after playing limited minutes in the past few games due to his lingering lower-body injury.
Although Georgetown won the tipoff, Providence got on the board first with a layup from guard Bensley Joseph. Georgetown sophomore forward Drew Fielder wasted no time making himself known to the Friars, knocking down a 3-pointer for the Hoyas’ first basket of the game and showcasing tough defense in the paint, disrupting the Friars by racking up 4 defensive rebounds and a block before the first media timeout.
Joseph, who would go on to score 14 of Providence’s first 20 points, starred for the Friars in the next stretch, tallying 11 straight points, including three 3-pointers. The Hoyas, however, would not let Providence run away with the momentum early, and graduate guard Micah Peavy, who Cooley touted as an “NBA first-round pick” in a postgame press conference, slammed down a pair of dunks to electrify the crowd and cut Providence’s lead to 3.
Providence then extended their lead to a 20-15 advantage after a layup and a pair of free throws from forward Ryan Mela, but the Hoyas responded with a pair of 3-pointers from sophomore guard Malik Mack and Epps off of a clutch Fielder steal to tie the game and take the lead, respectively, at the 7:54 mark. The Hoyas would never relinquish that lead again, and took off on a 19-3 run to end the half littered with buckets by Peavy and punctuated by a Burks buzzer-beating 3-pointer, sending Georgetown to the locker room at the half with a commanding 48-31 lead.
The second half only spelled continued success for Georgetown, as a 7-0 Georgetown run in the opening minutes of the half forced Providence College Head Coach Kim English to call a timeout and delivered Georgetown its largest lead of the game at 59-34.
The Friars’ frustration began to show and tempers flared between the teams as the second half wore on, with fouls galore. The referees gave out five technical fouls in the second half, including one to English. Fielder and Providence forward Oswin Erhunmwunse were each assessed a technical after a skirmish at the 4:52 mark, and Hoyas sophomore guard Curtis Williams Jr. and the Friars’ Mela were each T’ed up after an incident at the 1:06 mark.
Although Providence strung together some runs of momentum in the second half to cut into the Hoyas’ lead, they could never get within striking distance. As the clock wound down, the enthusiastic crowd broke out into chants of “We love Cooley” and Georgetown cruised to a dominant final score of 93-72, delivering a meaningful win to their head coach over his former team.
In a starry night for the Hoyas, Peavy again shone the brightest. The graduate transfer delivered his second standout performance against Providence this season, tallying a career-high 30 points, along with 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 6 steals. Fielder had a standout game as well before fouling out with 4:44 left, putting 17 points and 9 rebounds up on the board. In a true team effort for the Georgetown squad, Epps and Burks also reached double figures, with Epps tallying 18 and Burks scoring 13, another career-high for the Hoyas.
Georgetown shot the ball much better than Providence in their highest-scoring Big East game this season, shooting 50.8% from the field and 43.5% from the arc compared to figures of 37.1% and 31.3%, respectively, from Providence. The Hoyas also posted a 36-26 advantage in points in the paint despite their size disadvantage and had a 22-16 advantage on the fast break.
Cooley said he was proud of how the team joined together to pull out the win in the face of challenges such as injured players and the emotion of the past week, and that the win was a step in the right direction for the overall trajectory of the program.
“This to me was a really signature win for me as a coach. And not so much because of the opponent, but because of the adversity we were facing,” Cooley said in a postgame press conference. “Really proud of our men. A year ago today, I think we were 1-13 in the league. Literally 1-13. And it’s a process to build in another program. It’s a process to re-establish an identity.”
The Hoyas will now embark on a road trip where they will play some of the top teams in the Big East, starting with a matchup against a hot Creighton University Bluejays (18-8, 11-4 Big East) team Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. in Omaha, Neb
