WINNING with the Hoyas!

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. He has spent most of the past 2 years watching them lose 29 Big East games in a row, many of them in person…but see below for his photo essay about a funny thing that happened when DePaul came to DC last night.

After bagels/water at GW last weekend it was nice to get a filling pregame meal again: Chick-fil-A sandwich/nuggets, mac & cheese, and a brownie/chocolate chip cookie for dessert! Let’s tip it off for the hundreds and hundreds of folks in attendance:

The Big East always rises to the occasion for Coaches vs. Cancer. This year was no different as the entire Georgetown contingent of players/coaches donned pink sneakers for the big night:

Even the mascot has gotten tired of cheering for this team and needed to catch his breath…but did he have to sit down right in front of me?

Hoyas JR SG Wayne Bristol Jr. has been inconsistent this year but remains a good shooter. He had a very nice 1st half with 7 PTS on a 3/jumper/layup but went scoreless in the 2nd half:

His backcourt teammate Primo Spears was coming off of the game of his life (37 PTS/11 AST at Xavier last Saturday) and his jump shot kept going in as Georgetown built a 36-30 lead with 2 minutes left before halftime:

Unfortunately, those final 2 minutes belonged entirely to DePaul. SR PG Umoja Gibson helped lead his team back, and his 3 from the top of key helped his team finish a 7-0 run to take a 37-36 halftime lead, which is a bigger deal than you might think because the Blue Demons are 7-0 this year when leading at halftime:

DePaul SR F Javan Johnson had a big 2nd half to finish with 13 PTS before fouling out, but he and Gibson were the only 2 visitors in double-digits:

I assumed that Hoyas coach Patrick Ewing would just give the ball to Spears and hope that he could win it all by himself, but it turned into a total team effort, with Qudus Wahab hitting the boards (10 REB):

…and Jordan Riley getting into the lane for layups/scoop shots:

…and Brandon Murray having his best all-around game of the month with 12 PTS/5 AST/4 STL:

Georgetown built a double-digit lead late and ALMOST blew it but they hung on to win 81-76 and secure their 1st Big East victory in 693 days. I left my seat in the final minute so that I could get some nice video of the impending court storm…but it never came to pass. Ewing walked over for a quick postgame interview and it was nice to see him smiling after finally getting a W:

In the postgame press conference I asked Akok Akok (who had 12 PTS/6 REB/4 BLK) whether this was just another win or if it felt different/special. He claimed that it was just another win and that they are trying to flip the page. His team is ready to work hard and is looking forward to its next game vs. St. John’s in New York City on Sunday:

There was also a nice moment after the game when Ewing congratulated Rich Chvotkin, who has been the “Voice of the Hoyas” for the past 49 years, on winning the 2023 Woody Durham Voice of College Sports Award:

That is a wrap on the Hoyas’ historic win, and was also their final home game of this month, so check back in February to see if I can actually work the phrase “winning streak” into my next game recap!