Georgetown Basketball

Stat Of The Night

12/23/24

It's a new day, yes it is.

Georgetown's 61-60 victory at Seton Hall snaps the Hoyas' 57-game losing streak when they scored 65 or less.

The Hoyas last won a game with 65 points or less on Nov. 21, 2016, when they beat Oregon 65-61 in the Maui Invitational. Was John Thompson III's final season.

— Patrick Stevens (@D1scourse) December 23, 2024

Whew! Georgetown 61, Seton Hall 60

12/22/24

In a finish that resembled a demolition derby on ice, the Georgetown Hoyas won its first game at Seton Hall in over eight years, 61-60, before a crowd of 8,879 at Prudential Center Sunday.

The win is Georgetown's first at Newark in ten games dating to January 10, 2015, and its first 2-0 start in Big East play since January 2, 2016.

"We had lineups out there I've never seen even in practice, so it's a testament to our players that when their number was called, they were able to deliver," said head coach Ed Cooley in post-game comments.

For a second consecutive game, sophomore Malik Mack was unavailable due to injury, and Georgetown's problems in the backcourt were a story during the course of the game. At the start, though, it seemed the least of Georgetown's problems.

The Hoyas got off to a quick start in a first half that saw little from the Pirates in return. The Hoyas were five for seven from the field in the opening six minutes, the Pirates one for eight as GU opened a 14-3 lead. The Hoyas never led by fewer than seven which saw it lead by nine at the break, 32-23, behind 13 points from Thomas Sorber and nine from Jayden Epps.

The story of the first half was how cold the Pirates were... literally.

"The temperature in the building was in the 50s, partially due to a women's hockey game wrapping up shortly before tip-off," wrote veteran reporter Jerry Carino, "prompting longtime Big East administrator and former Seton Hall staffer John Paquette to compare the conditions to the two seasons in the mid-1980s when the Pirates played some home games at South Mountain Arena due to construction on campus. It was so cold there, the legend has it, that players used blankets on the benches."

Poor outside shooting (1-6) and equally poor free throw shooting (5-11) could be overlooked as the Pirates stumbled to the break shooting 8 for 28 (28 percent) and 1 for 11 from three point range. Isaiah Coleman had nine points at the break, while his fellow starters combined to shoot 1 for 11 in the first half.

Shaheen Holloway's halftime talk reenergized the Pirates from the outset of the second half. A move to a zone defense shut down the Hoyas early, and a pair of layups closed the lead to 32-27 before consecutive baskets by Sorber and Caleb Williams brought Georgetown back to ten, 37-27. The Hall was much more productive early in the second half, scoring 11 points by the first media timeout as compared to scoring 11 minutes in the first 11 minutes to open the game.

Five straight by the Hall closed to 43-39 before Sorber and Peavy led a 7-2 Georgetown run midway through the half, 50-41. Offensive rebounding kept the Pirates close, with nine offensive rebounds to two for the Hoyas with eight minutes to play, 53-47. The Hoyas went three minutes without a field goal but still led by six, 55-49, entering the final seven minutes thanks to awful shooting by the Pirates, at just 2 of 17 following its two opening baskets of the half.

The Hoyas' scoring woes were amplified when Jayden Epps went down with an ankle injury at the 6:26 mark and was helped off the court. Though he returned later in the game, he was limited to three possessions of 26, 27, and 22 seconds, respectively, and yielded to walk-on Austin Montgomery in the final two possessions of the game.

The teams traded offensive fouls entering the last six minutes, whereupon the Hoyas connected on its last two field goals of the game.

A Curtis Williams three brought the lead to 58-49, where the Pirates answered with a missed layup.

BIG TIME ???@Curtis5Williams | @GeorgetownHoopspic.twitter.com/rrj5matdob

— BIG EAST MBB (@BIGEASTMBB) December 23, 2024

Two more offensive rebounds and two missed three point attempts followed before Sorber cleared the boards, only to have Peavy miss a layup and Curtis Williams getting picked off by Isaiah Coleman, who split a pair of free throws, 58-50. On the next possession, the call went to Caleb Williams (jokingly referred by Fox Sports' John Fanta as "one of the Williams brothers"), who picked up a three from the corner to increase the lead to 11, 61-50, with 3:51 remaining.

Here's where things got really messy.

Coleman went inside on Caleb Williams and picked up two from the line, 61-52. Curtis Williams was swarmed under the Georgetown basket and coughed up the ball, but Chaunce Jenkins opted for a three and, of course, missed: this was the Pirates' ninth miss in 10 attempts and five straight missed from three point range. On GU's next series, Sorber missed the front half of a one and one and Jenkins added two from the line, 61-54. On the inbound, Peavy couldn't get the ball out of the backcourt and was tied up, returning the ball to the Hall with 2:59 to play.

What does Seton Hall do? Miss another three, but Sorber lost the ball on Georgetown's next possession and third string center Gus Yalden went inside past Sorber, 61-56. Peavy coughed up the ball with 1:44 remaining and picked up his fifth foul four seconds later, and a pair of free throws by Scotty Middleton brought the Hall to 61-58 with 1:40 to play.

On its next series, the Seton Hall defense completely bottled up Georgetown, but bailed out the Hoyas with four seconds on the shot clock when Drew McKenna picked up a foul under the Seton Hall basket. McKenna had not attempted a free throw all season, and it showed-- he missed both. For the Pirates' next possession, a missed layup, missed tip-in, and another missed layup were blessed by three consecutive offensive rebounds, culminating in a Coleman layup with 36 seconds remaining, 61-60. The Hoyas nearly lost the ball getting the ball into the frontcourt before a valuable GU timeout set up its final play with 31 seconds.

As for a play, there wasn't much of one. Epps and Sorber were sealed off, leaving Caleb Williams to miss a short shot with 10 seconds to play, but Sorber lost the ball on a shot clock violation after his offensive rebound, Georgetown's first in nearly 10 minutes.

Following its time out, Seton Hall took over with nine seconds remaining.

"It just didn't work, the play just didn't work," Coleman said after the game. "[Curtis Williams was] guarding me, I was trying to get the ball and it just didn't happen."

With the ball into the frontcourt, Dylan Addae-Wusu lost the ball off the dribble, allowing Sorber, playing well past the paint, to picked up the loose ball to end the game.

Georgetown takes it away and hangs on for the win against Seton Hall! ?? pic.twitter.com/P99CmVfcf5

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) December 23, 2024

Georgetown ended this game without a point in the final four minutes, finishing 0 for 3 from the foul line, and contributing five turnovers. Seton Hall finished on a 10-0 run on two layups and 6-6 from the line; however, it failed to make a jumper in the final nine minutes and went 0-8 from three point range in the final 14:15 to end the game.

Despite these numbers, the Hoyas never trailed in this game and led for the final 38:08. Georgetown shot 53 percent for the game, led by 19 points and eight rebounds from Thomas Sorber, who was held to six after halftime and none in the final 11:03.

A season-high 19 Georgetown turnovers netted just 13 points for the Pirates, while the Hall's 18 second half offensive rebounds returned it just 11 points. Georgetown shot poorly from the foul line (11 for 22) and the three point line (4 for 12), opening a door numerous times for the Pirates to get back in this game.

The sheer number of missed opportunities for the Pirates in this game is staggering, none more so than shooting 3 for 24 from three point range, its fewest at the Prudential Center in nearly two years. Starters Garwey Dual and Yacine Toumi finished the game a combined 0 for 7 from the field, while sixth man Chaunce Jenkins, who has led the Pirates in scoring in four of its prior five wins to date, was 3 for 14 from the field and 1 for 7 from three. A 17 of 23 effort at the foul line was above its season average, but a missed front end of a one and one in each half proved tantalizingly short of what might have, could have, and probably should have been.

Here's the Georgetown half of the box score:

            MIN   2FG   3FG  FT   REB  A  PF  PTS
Starters:    
Epps         34   3-6   1-5  6-8    3  3   2   15
Peavy        38   4-9   0-1  2-3    4  5   5   10
Ca. Williams 10   1-2   2-2  0-1    5  3   2    8
Fielder      24   2-2   0-2  0-2    4  1   3    4
Sorber       39   8-11  0-1  3-6    8  2   2   19
Reserves:
McKenna       3   0-0   0-0  0-2    0  0   1    0
Cu. Williams 10   0-0   1-1  0-0    1  0   4    3 
Montgomery    1   0-0   0-0  0-0    0  0   0    0
Burks        14   1-1   0-0  0-0    3  0   2    2 
Team Rebounds                       4 
Injured: Mack, Halaifonua, Mulready                   
DNP: Fort, Asadallah, Moses, Van Raaphorst, Diouf  
TOTALS      200 19-31  4-12 11-22  32  14  21  61