Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 8

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 7 was published last month:
https://hoopshd.com/2022/02/02/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-7-2
He continues his series with Part 8 featuring the Hoyas’ matchup yesterday against Creighton:

Not the most filling/nutritious pregame meal to start the day but biscuits with bacon/chicken/sausage and fruit from Chick-fil-A were certainly tasty. A noon EDT start on an unseasonably warm Saturday morning for a home team that has lost 12 in a row = plenty of good seats available:


Let’s tip it off:


As you might imagine, Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing has been frustrated at his team for almost 2 months due to their long losing streak, but at least there was a glimmer of hope after he learned that Creighton freshman Arthur Kaluma would be sitting this 1 out due to a right knee injury:


1 of the feature matchups was a pair of really big Ryans as 7’1” Ryan Kalkbrenner battled 7’2” Ryan Mutombo for post position all day long. Kalkbrenner had the early advantage by getting free in the paint for multiple alleyoop dunks but Mutombo responded with a jumper in the lane and a lefty hook during his 1st career start. I have seen his father at multiple home games this year, and even the occasional road game on TV, but there was no sign of him this weekend. To put it in historical perspective, the last time a Mutombo had started for the Hoyas was more than 3 decades ago on 3/17/91, when Dikembe had 16 PTS/9 REB/3 BLK in an 8-PT loss to an undefeated UNLV squad in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney:


As if we did not have enough Ryans already, Creighton trotted out not 1 but TWO more in the starting lineup. 1 is SR Ryan Hawkins, who has a fascinating basketball backstory: he spent the past several years as a player at Northwest Missouri State, where he won a trio of D-2 titles and now has 173 wins in 189 games during the past 6 years. On the other side of the experience spectrum is FR Ryan Nembhard, who is leading the team in AST as a freshman…yet is not even the best college player in his own family this year, as his older brother Andrew runs the point at Gonzaga and is looking like a sure bet to receive a #1 seed next month. Hawkins was great in the 1st half while tying his season-high with 5 threes, but Nembhard exhibited his versatility with a 3 from the top of the key as well as a nice drive/layup:


Georgetown was able to keep it close with an inside/outside combination of their own. FR Aminu Mohammed (left) kept getting to the rim for several layups, while SR Kaiden Rice (right) showed off his shooting stroke with a pair of pull-up jumpers and a pair of threes:



The Blue Jays were only up 42-37 at halftime, which left the crowd wondering if today was the day that the losing streak would be snapped. Kalkbrenner kept owning the paint in the 2nd half with an assortment of layups/alleyoop dunks/baby hooks and had the best game of his career with 22 PTS/15 REB/2 BLK:


SR Keyshawn Feazell did next to nothing in the 1st 20 minutes but saved his best for the last half with a 3 from the top of the key and a pair of alleyoop dunks to finish with an efficient 8 PTS in 8 minutes:


Hoyas PG Dante Harris had a rough afternoon on offense with 5 turnovers and only 5-16 FG but was solid in a couple of other areas with team-highs of 5 AST/3 STL:


SR Donald Carey demonstrated the entire arsenal in the 2nd stanza, banking in a 3 from the top of the key, then converting a runner in the lane, and wrapping up with an old fashioned 3-PT play en route to a team-high-tying 16 PTS/0 TO:


Hawkins did not stop shooting from long range…which was a good idea because he did not stop making them either. He ended up tying his career-high by making a whopping 8 shots from behind the arc: in comparison, the entire Hoyas team only made 6-24. Creighton won 80-66 and Hawkins’ stat line made him a strong candidate for Big East player of the week: a season-high 30 PTS/6 AST while also grabbing 12 REB and only turning the ball over once:


That is a wrap for a couple of weeks while the Hoyas embark on a 3-game road trip. I will be out of town for their final regular season home game vs. UConn on 2/27, but check back later this month to see if I can make it to the DePaul game on 2/24.