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 4 was published last weekend:
https://hoopshd.com/2022/01/08/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-4-2
He continues his series with Part 5 featuring the Hoyas’ matchup last night against Butler:
Due to a new COVID-19 mandate for all indoor facilities in DC this was the 1st time that I had to show proof of vaccination at a game. It only took a few extra seconds out of my life so I had no objection at all. The pregame meal included chicken nuggets/mac and cheese/fruit salad/chocolate chip cookies: delicious! A 7PM EDT Thursday night start + a pair of teams with the worst overall records in the Big East = a sparse/late-arriving crowd. Coach Patrick Ewing was out tonight due to “DC Department of Health guidelines” so his assistant coach Louis Orr was chose to take his place (his 1st game as a head coach since a 3-PT OT loss to Northern Illinois in the 1st round of 2014 MAC tourney when he was the leading man at Bowling Green):
Let’s tip it off!
The COVID protocols apparently extended to the referees as well, as they would put on their masks during timeouts:
I was unsure if Orr was just going to use the Ewing playbook but he decided to add a new chapter of his own, as the Hoyas came out in a rarely-seen zone defense. Another sight that had not been seen in a while was Georgetown big man Timothy Ighoefe, who played his 1st game since breaking his left hand back in November. He had a layup and dunk in the 1st half despite his wrist being wrapped up tight:
Butler had a returning player of its own, as SR Bo Hodges played his 1st game since injuring his left knee injury last August. There was a little rust showing when his 1st shot was a corner 3…that hit the top of the backboard, but he did make a layup and was extremely active on the boards with a whopping 7 REB in only 11 minutes:
Even with the return of Ighoefe the Hoyas only had 10 players in uniform, which allowed a chance for some freshman role players to get some serious playing time. PG Tyler Beard (left) had 15 PTS/5 AST in 39 minutes, while PF Jalin Billingsley (right) played 18 minutes and tied his career-high with 8 PTS:
The last time I saw Jair Bolden in DC was at least 4 years ago when he was playing for GW. Since then he has transferred to both South Carolina/Butler but still has not lost his touch from 3-PT range, as he ended up making 5 threes and all of his free throws to finish with a game-high 23 PTS:
Georgetown’s early 6-0 lead was quickly erased and Butler ended up leading 32-27 at halftime. The short-handed Hoyas entered the game with 4 players scoring in double-digits but the quartet combined to make exactly THREE shots on Friday, as Dante Harris/Donald Carey were out due to illness, Aminu Mohammed (left) made 2-16 FG, and Kaiden Rice (right) made 1-9 FG:
The Bulldogs pulled away in the 2nd half with the “Bolden & Golden” show, as big man Grant Golden (below) had 11 PTS/5 REB and Bolden’s final 3 of the night gave his team its largest lead of the game (53-33) en route to a 72-58 win:
That is a wrap, we will be taking a brief pause from Hoya games but check back next week for our coverage of the MLK Jr. Classic featuring Notre Dame at Howard on Monday (snow permitting)!