Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 7

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming weeks covering some Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. Part 6 was published last month:
https://hoopshd.com/2022/01/23/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-6-2
He continues his series with Part 7 featuring the Hoyas’ matchup last night against Seton Hall:

I arrived starving for the pregame meal because it was a late tip time…but there was only popcorn/soda available. The good news is that some chicken tenders/nachos were served shortly thereafter…but the bad news is that just as I was heading for my seat I saw bags and bags of PF Chang’s being delivered: son of a bee-sting! On the plus side, there is a Hall of Famer in the house, as Dikembe Mutombo stood courtside to see his son Ryan play for Georgetown:


An 8:30 PM EDT game on a Tuesday night in February for a team that has lost 8 in a row against an opponent who was missing its 2nd-leading scorer in Bryce Aiken (who sat out due to concussion protocol) meant that there were plenty of good seats available:


The Big East is celebrating Black History Month in February by partnering with the Black Fives Foundation to host 22 games honoring Black athletes/coaches/communities who played a critical part in the history of basketball in the US. Georgetown came out in warmup shirts featuring the logo of the Washington Bears, an all-Black pro basketball team from the 1940s whose roster included Hall of Famers such as Pop Gates/Tarzan Cooper/John Isaacs:


Let’s tip it off with some truly tall men (7′ Timothy Ighoefe vs. 7’2″ Ike Obiagu!):


Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing wore his Washington Bears shirt all night long while Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard opted for a suit/tie:


Pirates sophomore Kadary Richmond went scoreless against the Hoyas last year as a freshman at Syracuse but got things going early with a floater in the lane, a pretty jumper, and a 3:


His teammate Jared Rhoden has only made about 25% of his 3-PT attempts this year but looked quite comfortable in the 1st half as he knocked down a pair of shots from behind the arc in his pink sneakers:


Aminu Mohammed (left) and Dante Harris (right) tried their best to keep it close via a series of layups/jump shots but it looked like they were going to be trailing by double-digits heading into the locker room:


However, the Hoyas got the ball to Kaiden Rice at the end of the half and he made a tough 3 at the buzzer to cut the deficit to 35-28 at halftime:


The last time there was a basketball game on this floor was a Clippers-Wizards NBA affair last week featuring a center matchup of 7′ Ivica Zubac vs. 6’10” Daniel Gafford. Tonight we have a college game featuring a pair of 7’2″ big men going at it (Obiagu vs. Mutombo). Mutombo was very active off the bench with 6 PTS/6 REB/3 BLK, but while Obiagu only had 2 PTS/2 REB he showed why he is 1 of the best interior defenders as he had more blocks (5) than the entire Georgetown team (4):


Seton Hall F Tray Jackson only scored 21 PTS in his previous 3 games combined but apparently he is out of his slump. He had a big follow-dunk early in the 2nd stanza and then took care of business outside, finishing with a career-high 5 3PM and tying his career-high with 21 PTS:


Hoyas’ captain Donald Carey did not play a single game from December 19-January 19 due to illness but appeared pretty healthy with a team-high 15 PTS including a baseline drive that resulted in a circus shot/foul/&1:


Georgetown actually took a 5-PT lead with under 9 minutes to play but just ran out of steam as Seton Hall won by a score of 70-63…followed by the tallest handshake that I have ever seen in person featuring the Mutombo men:


That is a wrap on the Hoyas’ 1st game in February, I will not be at tomorrow night’s game on-campus at McDonough Arena, but check back in the weeks ahead as there are still 4 games at Capital 1 Arena left on the schedule.