HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. Part 3 was published last month:
https://hoopshd.com/2021/12/19/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-3-2
He continues his series with Part 4 featuring the Hoyas’ matchup last night against Marquette:
The pregame media meal featured a solid spread of chicken/mac and cheese/salad/chocolate chip cookies. A 6:30PM EDT Friday night start + cold weather outside + Georgetown spring semester not starting until next week = VERY few fans in the house:
Let’s tip it off!
Patrick Ewing and Shaka Smart have faced each other before…but it was at Madison Square Garden when Smart was coach at Texas in 2019:
The best sighting of the night was former Hoya Jamorko Pickett sitting on the baseline…and wearing his Pistons sweatpants (he has a 2-way contract with the Detroit as well as the Motor City Cruise of the G League)!
Georgetown has been on a COVID pause for a few weeks so even the refs were wearing masks:
I was happy to see Georgetown forward Kobe Clark playing his 1st game since suffering a hamstring injury in November but was stunned to see him wearing a mask WHILE PLAYING, although he gave up on it and took it off after the under-8-minute timeout:
Marquette was coming off of a 32-PT home win over Providence last week and kept the momentum rolling on Saturday. Olivier-Maxence Prosper (aka O-Max!) set a career-high last month with 13 PTS in a loss to UConn: he tied that in the 1st half with a pair of 3-PT shots, a hook in the lane, and a thunderous alley-oop dunk off a pass from Stevie Mitchell.
The Golden Eagles leading scorer this year is Justin Lewis (16 PPG), who dominated inside with a couple of dunks before stepping outside to make a baseline jumper:
PG Tyler Kolek kept getting into the lane and made several layups to contribute to his team’s huge 1st half lead, but Georgetown freshman Aminu Mohammed helped his team stage a late comeback by virtue of a very unique 4-PT play (layup by Mohammed while getting fouled, then a technical foul on Coach Smart, then a FT by Dante Harris and then another FT by Mohammed!).
Despite an 11-0 run by Hoyas in the final 3 minutes of the half they still trailed 45-37 at halftime. Coach Ewing only used 8 players in the game since Donald Carey/Ryan Mutombo were unavailable, which gave some other players a chance to shine. Sophomore F Collin Holloway made his 2nd career start and took full advantage by scoring a team-high 17 PTS including a reverse layup, a 3, and a tip-in:
C Malcolm Wilson had a chance for a 3-PT play in the 2nd stanza but ended up missing a 1-handed FT: I was so shocked that I did not even have time to take a photo! Harris gutted out a 1st half injury by finishing with 15 PTS/2 STL but kept grasping/flexing his injured hand all night long:
Marquette F Oso Ighodaro only scored 2 PTS in a loss to UConn last month but has been nearly perfect on offense during his past 3 games with 15 PPG/20-24 FG/6-6 FT. The Hoyas tried to keep creeping back into it but Ighodaro made a pair of layups to wrap up a 15-0 Marquette run (in under 3 minutes!) and put the game out of reach. Prosper kept attacking the paint with a series of layups/dunks and had the game of his life with 22 PTS/9-11 FG/2 STL/0 turnovers. Kolek entered the game as a career 27% FG shooter but he actually made his 1st 6 shots of the game before missing a late 3 to finish with 13 PTS/7 AST:
Marquette won by a comfortable score of 92-64, giving them back-to-back conference wins by a combined 60 PTS(!). Their next 4 weeks will feature 7 opponents in the top-50, but if they can survive that gauntlet then they can ease into postseason play with each of their final 6 regular season opponents currently sitting outside the top-50. That is a wrap: check back later this month (COVID permitting).