HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. He was out of town for their season-opener last Monday but was in attendance Saturday night for the Hoyas’ local rivalry game against Maryland at Capital 1 Arena and prepared this photo essay.
The 1st pregame meal of the year was a delicious 1: make your own Mediterranean bowl! This longtime series started way back in 1907, but tonight is their 1st meeting in DC in almost 10 years, and there was a lot of red in the crowd:
There are few people with a hotter seat this year than Hoyas’ head coach Ed Cooley, but he looks pretty cool-ey to me before the game:
Unfortunately he will be facing the Terps without Oklahoma State transfer Vyctorius Miller, who remains out due to a right hand injury that has his arm in a sling:
Let’s tip off another season of Georgetown basketball:
Maryland could not make many outside shots in the 1st half, but guards Andre Mills (left)/DJ Wagner (right) kept driving into the paint for layups and pulling up for jump shots to keep them in the game early on:
However, Georgetown’s backcourt was even better. Kentucky transfer Jaland Lowe only made 5 total threes last season in Lexington, but he knocked down a career-high-tying 5 triples last Monday against Loyola MD and knocked down 4 more in the 1st half against the Terps:
Kansas transfer Elmarko Jackson made a couple of threes as well, but also drove to the rim for a pair of layups to help the Hoyas build a big 44-28 lead heading into halftime:
The story of the opening stanza was 3-PT shooting: Georgetown made 8-17 from behind the arc while Maryland only made 1-11, and coming out of halftime even the Hoyas’ mascot wanted to get into the game so that he could join the 3 party:
The 2nd half did not go much better for the guys from College Park, who were whistled for 4 fouls in the 1st 33 seconds (!) and missed all 7 of their attempts from behind the arc during the next 16 minutes(!!). The only silver lining was big man Pharrel Payne, who owned the paint with a bunch of follow-dunks/layups/and-1’s to keep his team from getting completely embarrassed:
I have seen the Hoyas fade down the stretch more times than I would like to remember during the past several seasons, but they were hitting on all cylinders tonight. Kayvaun Mulready did his damage from the outside with 4-5 3PM in the 2nd stanza, his teammate Vince Iwuchukwu battled Payne down low with 2 dunks and an alleyoop layup, and Georgetown cruised to an 86-74 victory that could have easily been a 30-PT win if they had kept their foot on the gas.
In the postgame press conference I asked Maryland coach Buzz Williams (or as he is lovingly known at HoopsHD: Uncle Buzz!) whether he thought FR G Kaden House (son of Eddie) would be this good this fast (13+ PTS in each of his 1st 2 college games). He said he likes the toughness House competes with, and he is beginning to understand his spacing on the court, which will allow him to get fouled at a higher rate. He is excited about House’s future and think he fits their team in a very good way:
Since Lowe did not attend the Georgetown press conference, I hoped Jackson could explain how his teammate had improved his 3-PT shooting so much this season after his 3P% had decreased during each of the past 2 seasons. He said he was most impressed with Lowe’s conditioning, which helps them wear other teams down, and gives him less fatigue/errors in his own shot. It also makes it easier when Lowe has guys around him who can space the floor such as Mulready, who made a bunch of threes in just 12 minutes of action in the 2nd half:
That is a wrap for now, but check back tomorrow when a pair of top-12 teams visit DC for 1 of the best non-conference games of the month!
