Hoops HD

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with a very special reward coming in March. 6 down, 2 to go:
Part 1: Central Connecticut State (https://hoopshd.com/2018/11/11/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-1)
Part 2: Richmond (https://hoopshd.com/2018/11/30/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-2)
Part 3: Liberty (https://hoopshd.com/2018/12/04/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-3)
Part 4: SMU (https://hoopshd.com/2018/12/15/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-4)
Part 5: Appalachian State (https://hoopshd.com/2018/12/19/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-5)
Part 6: Little Rock (https://hoopshd.com/2018/12/24/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-6)
Part 7 was Saturday afternoon when St. John’s visited DC for the schools’ 112th meeting dating back to 1909.

I rang in the New Year with yet another delicious pregame meal: make-your-own-burritos from Chipotle (I lived to tell about it) and M&M cookies. I thought Walton in a Tempe restroom was going to be my best Bill sighting of the season…until I got to see Raftery in the DC media room (who was there as the CBS color analyst)! There were a decent amount of fans wearing red in the stands to support the 13-1 Red Storm’s best start to a season since they won 14 out of 15 to begin the 1985-86 season. I am also in favor of supporting Coaches vs. Cancer Week…but the sight of Georgetown in teal uniforms/pink sneakers was not that easy on the eyes:

And away we go (they moved me from right behind the basket to about 25 rows up in the corner behind the Georgetown bench so this 1 will be a little more essay and a little less photo):

The Hoyas entered the day on a 4-game winning streak but appeared hard-pressed to extend it due to missing a pair of starters in Mac McClung (sprained left ankle) and Trey Mourning (concussion protocol). I spent the 1st 2 months of the season pushing for Jessie Govan (who grew up just a few miles away from Carnesecca Arena in Queens and used an array of low-post moves against his hometown team to score 11 1st half PTS) as Big East POY, but after watching Shamorie Ponds put on a show I am throwing my support his way. The 6’1” JR PG owned the 1st half: he made a layup, a baseline jumper, and 4 shots from behind the arc for a total of 16 PTS, while even making several behind-the-back passes that were right on the money en route to 3 AST. Assistance on the defensive end of the floor came in the form of FR LJ Figueroa, who had 6 defensive REB/4 STL/1 BLK in only 15 minutes of action. Georgetown G Jahvon Blair was instant offense off the bench with a 3-PT shot and a 4-PT play to make it 28-17, but St. John’s used an 8-0 advantage in fast-break PTS to take a 42-39 halftime lead.

2 sightings during halftime:
A kid in the bathroom line who was wearing a Zion Williamson high school jersey (I know he is great but can we please turn off the hype machine?!):

And HoopsHD’s favorite sideline reporter…Jon Rothstein!

Ponds continued to do damage in the 2nd half with 18 PTS (including 8-10 FT) but got some more help on the offensive end from Mustapha Heron: he only had 1 basket in the 1st half but made shots from all over the court in the 2nd half (a dunk, a 3, and a pair of pretty layups) before fouling out with 18.6 seconds left in regulation. Another player who had a tale of 2 halves was Georgetown SR SG Greg Malinowski: coming off of a career-high 26-PT effort in a win over Butler last Wednesday, he only scored 1 PT in the 1st half vs. St. John’s before making a trio of threes in the 2nd half and also accumulating a career-high 7 AST. The Hoyas have relied on their freshman backcourt all season but it is FR F Josh LeBlanc who is becoming the model of consistency: he remains a bundle of energy in the paint on both ends of the court and finished with 12 PTS/13 REB to give him 3 double-doubles in his past 5 games.

The final minute of regulation was rather wild. Coach Patrick Ewing called a timeout with 34.3 seconds left and an 84-81 lead:

His team came back onto the court just needing to hold onto the ball…but ended up getting whistled for a backcourt violation…which the refs later reversed after going to the monitor and giving the ball back to the Hoyas due to an inadvertent whistle. Jamorko Pickett was fouled and made 1-2 FTs to give his team a 4-PT lead with 18 seconds left, but the game was far from over. Ponds was fouled with 15 seconds left and knocked down both FTs to make it 85-83. Blair took the inbounds pass but the SR lost the ball against a double-team: Figueroa set a career-high by picking up his 6th STL of the night, was fouled by Blair, and somehow made a pair of FTs with 11.3 seconds left to tie it at 85-all (despite only going 1-4 from the FT line during his previous 5 games!). The Hoyas missed a shot at the buzzer and went to OT for the 3rd time in their past 11 games as the crowd kept buzzing:

St. John’s used a total team effort as they finished their 2nd straight game with 5 guys in double-figures: Figueroa made an alleyoop dunk, Justin Simon made a dunk before fouling out with 14 PTS, and Marvin Clark made a 3 before fouling out with 11 PTS of his own. Govan must have been inspired by Blair’s 1st half 4-PT play since he made 1 of his own to cut the deficit to 94-90 halfway through the extra period. Ponds finished with 37 PTS/6 AST but he made the play of the game on defense: he snagged an alleyoop pass from James Akinjo and then Simon took it the other way for a breakaway alleyoop dunk to make it 96-90. After Akinjo/Blair each missed jump shots in the final 5 seconds, St. John’s was able to hang on for a 97-94 victory while increasing their record to an amazing 14-1 (with only a 2-PT loss at Seton Hall the previous Saturday standing in their way of perfection).

In the postgame press conference Ponds had to field a ton of questions so I gave him a well-deserved break:

I asked Coach Mullin to describe what the mood was like back on campus and how special it was to give his former coach Lou Carnesecca a win on his 94th birthday. The Hall of Famer said that he had talked to Coach Carnesecca earlier that day and that “a win was all that he wanted!” As far as life in NYC, he admitted that the fanbase has spent several years watching the team struggle/grow, but that it was all the sweeter because instead of a quick fix he had gone about the “genuine authentic way of building a program.”

Coach Ewing had answered someone else’s question by stating that his team just needed to get better at closing out games, so I followed up by wondering if that was an impossible task without a healthy lineup. After confirming that McClung/Mourning were both day-to-day, the other Hall of Famer mentioned that his team “is deep enough that we should be able to withstand the loss of 2 injured starters” and that they possess a “next-man-up mentality where they just need to find a way to close out games.”

That’s all for now, check back in the weeks ahead for Part 8.