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 Seton Hall.
I had a delicious pregame meal: chicken/salmon/broccoli/mac and cheese/rice/tomatoes/kale Caesar salad! Call me a traditionalist but I am not a fan of the teal uniforms:
Let’s tip off the home opener for 2026 with the biggest student section all season:
There was not a lot of offense during the 1st 20 minutes…but if you like rock fights then you came to the right place! It was also a tale of 2 Williams. Seton Hall G Mike Williams III did all of his work inside with an alley-oop layup and a pair of pull-up jumpers:
In contrast, Georgetown F Caleb Williams backed down his defender for a floater in the lane but made both of his 3-PT attempts for a team-high 8 PTS.
The score was tied at 29 as we headed to halftime. During intermission I got a real thumbs-up from HoopsHD’s favorite imaginary handshaker: former Siena and Loyola MD coach Jimmy Patsos!
Georgetown is 4-0 this season when they had 5 players score in double-figures, and their backcourt finally got going in the 2nd stanza. KJ Lewis made a layup and a 3, then made sure the ref appreciated all his hard work:
Malik Mack got hit in the nose midway through the half, causing the trainer to stuff a bandage up his left nostril after it started bleeding, but he played through the pain with a floater, a fadeaway jumper, and a layup to finish with a team-high 14 PTS:
Seton Hall trailed by 11 PTS with 14 minutes to go, then their bench players flipped the switch as Tajuan Simpkins (left) made a pair of threes and an old-fashioned 3-PT play, while Josh Rivera (right) made a dunk and 3 to help the Pirates regain the lead:
The shortest player on the court was also the best player on the court as 5’10” PG Adam “Budd” Clark helped seal the deal for the Pirates. He knocked down several jump shots as well as 10-12 FTs en route to a season-high 22 PTS as the Pirates pulled off the comeback to win by a score of 74-67:
In the postgame press conference, I asked Georgetown coach Ed Cooley whether he felt his opposing coach (Shaheen Holloway) was a strong contender for national COY. He said that Shaheen would be very worthy of that award because his kids are outwilling everyone they are playing thanks to pressing and getting offensive rebounds. He closed with, “There are a lot of great coaches in our league and I think he is very deserving: the 1 coach who is not is me.”:
That is a wrap for now but check back next weekend when UConn comes to DC!
