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 Wednesday night for the Hoyas’ game at Capital 1 Arena and prepared this photo essay about their matchup against St. John’s.
I guessed they used up all the great food for the Rangers-Caps game earlier today, as my pregame meal was a Chick-fil-A sandwich/potato chips/chocolate chip cookie. I thought our only 2 national COY award-winners in the house were going to be Rick Pitino (2025)/Ed Cooley (2022)…until I noticed that our TV analyst tonight on FS1 is former St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli (2004):
Coach Cooley’s last loss was to Xavier coach Richard Pitino 11 days ago, so shout-out to John Stalica for noting that this could be the 1st time a team has ever had consecutive losses to a father/son combo! The last time that Cooley and St. John’s wing Bryce Hopkins were together on the same court was in the Big East…when Cooley was Hopkins’ coach at Providence back in 2023:
Let’s tip-off the final college basketball game in the country for 2025:
The Red Storm came out firing from long range as Oziyah Sellers (left)/Ian Jackson (right) each made a trio of trifectas during the 1st half:
However, the Hoyas matched them shot for shot as Isaiah Abraham (left)/Malik Mack (right) each made 2 of their own to keep the game from getting out of control:
Their teammate KJ Lewis displayed his entire arsenal with a fadeaway jumper in the lane, a pull-up jump shot, and a STL/ferocious dunk to help Georgetown build a 7-PT lead with 7 minutes to play in the opening stanza:
St. John’s F Zuby Ejiofor was certainly a focal point of Georgetown’s defensive game plans, but with Vince Iwuchukwu still out after a “scheduled medical procedure” and Julius Halaifonua picking up 3 fouls in his 1st 4 minutes of action, there were simply no big bodies left to match up with him. Ejiofor capitalized with a series of layups/putbacks and even a rare 3 as the Red Storm went into the locker room with a 52-47 halftime lead:
The Hoyas kept fighting in the 2nd half with Mack making threes and Lewis knocking down jumper after jumper, but it would not be enough. Even the bench players on St. John’s like Joson Sanon (left)/Dylan Darling (right) were draining threes as their team made a marvelous 15-27 from behind the arc (2 shy of the school record for most 3PM in a game):
Ejiofor kept dominating with an and-1, a dunk, and a REB/tip-in, finishing with 25 PTS/10 REB/7 AST to lead his team to a 95-83 victory.
In the postgame press conference, I was hoping to ask Coach Pitino about his family’s double-dip over the Hoyas in December…but there were too many other people asking him questions. On the plus side, he was in a MUCH better mood than during his press conference in November after his team’s 1-PT loss to Iowa State at the Players Era Festival and even shared an R-rated story about Antoine Walker (is there any other kind?!):
I asked Coach Cooley about the relationship he has with his former player Hopkins. He said that he is always a fan of guys who played for him and is glad that Hopkins is healthy and playing with a smile on his face. He was hoping that Hopkins would go 1-55 from the field tonight but was still happy to see him out there after overcoming a very tough injury:
That is a wrap for now (as well as for 2025), but check back next week when Seton Hall visits DC!
