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 was in attendance Saturday night and prepared this photo essay about the Hoyas’ matchup against TCU.
After 6 straight home games vs. teams outside the top-250 it was time for a serious opponent upgrade on Saturday in the form of the undefeated Horned Frogs. The pregame meal remained as tasty as ever: make-your-own fajitas! Let’s tip it off with some fancy teal uniforms:
I have not had many A-list sightings at Capital 1 Arena in a while…but 4-time Pro Bowl LB London Fletcher in the front row certainly qualifies!
Georgetown’s top-2 scorers showed that they were up for the challenge in the 1st half. JR wing Dontrez Styles knocked down a corner 3 while also getting into the lane for a layup/tip-in. SO PG Jayden Epps scored from inside/outside as well but continued to have problems holding onto the ball, as his 4 TO through the 1st 17 minutes equaled that of the entire TCU squad. Coach Jamie Dixon has a very balanced squad so you never know who is going to carry the offensive load. JR F JaKobe Coles is no stranger to the Big East, having started his career at Butler, and he looked very comfortable during the 1st 20 minutes by knocking down a mix of layups/jumpers:
SR F Emanuel Miller also made 5 FG of his own to help his team build a 44-36 halftime lead. TCU started to pull away in the 2nd half while getting out to a 53-38 lead…but then came the turning point of the game. Styles made a 3, and as the ball went through the hoop the refs called a flagrant 2 foul on Xavier Cork for elbowing Supreme Cook. Cork was ejected, Cook made his 1st FT and missed his 2nd, but the Hoyas got the rebound and Styles was fouled by Miller before making 2 FTs of his own to conclude the 6-PT possession and get the home crowd back into the game. Styles kept pouring it on with a 3 to cut the deficit to 63-62, followed by a scoop to take a 64-63 lead, and finished with 18 PTS/3-6 3PM/0 TO:
His teammate/SR F Ismael Massoud started the game 0-6 from the field and was scoreless before halftime, but flipped the switch in the 2nd half by knocking down 4 shots from long-distance and grabbing a career-high 10 REB to finish with a double-double:
Georgetown built a 4-PT lead with under 6 minutes left but Coles made a turnaround jumper to cut it to 2 and nailed a 3 from the top of the key with under 90 seconds left to tie it at 81-all. Epps kept getting to the rim and finished with 24 PTS but saved his best for last after getting fouled by Micah Peavy with 2.7 seconds left and making what appeared to be the game-winning FTs to give Georgetown an 83-81 lead:
Miller already had 26 PTS for the Horned Frogs and saved the day by taking a long inbounds pass and banking in a 3 at the buzzer to win it:
https://twitter.com/TCUSportsAlerts/status/1731112832920363180?s=20
The fans were devastated, but after watching the reply their sadness turned into gladness because it was clear that Miller had stepped out of bounds before making his sensational shot. Unfortunately, while there is instant replay in college basketball, it turns out that 1 of the many things that is NOT reviewable is whether a player stepped out of bounds, so the call stood as Miller set a career-high with 29 PTS in TCU’s 84-83 win to remain undefeated at 7-0 in a win that was THIS big!
In the postgame press conference I did not get a chance to ask anything of the TCU coach/players because…life is not always fair (and they only took a few questions because they probably had a plane to catch). I did get to see if Georgetown coach Ed Cooley was surprised that Massoud was able to get a double-double in just his 2nd career game in DC. He said that Ish has been around the block while playing for big-time programs in the past at Wake Forest/Kansas State, and that 1 key to his success is that he is in the gym early while everyone else is sleeping:
That is a wrap, check back next week for my special trip to Philly to see my Quakers host a little up-and-coming program called…Kentucky!