Your Georgetown Hoyas traveled to Chicago on this cold winter’s night to face the DePaul Blue Demons, losing 56-50. The second half in particular was offensively bad to a degree that defied all logic. Georgetown was 1-23 from the field after halftime.
Prior to tipoff, Vince
Iwuchukwu was no longer listed as ‘Out’ on the availability report, for the first time since roughly mid-November. This game felt important both as a chance for a gettable road win and a return to a .500 BIG EAST record. That did not happen.
It took nearly two minutes of gameplay before Mack floated in a jumper to open the scoring for both teams. The sloppy start was something that the Hoyas would rather forget, and they temporarily managed to do that throughout the first half after trailing DePaul by double-digits with barely six minutes elapsed.
Back-to-back contested buckets from Lewis and Langston Love got the Hoyas back on a path toward stability, a pair of long jumpers from Jeremiah Williams cut the deficit further, and when Mack found Iwuchukwu inside with 8:09 remaining, he put the Hoyas ahead 21-20.
Georgetown did find their defensive stride late in the period. The length and lateral mobility of Iwuchukwu and pairing with Jayden Fort up front seemed effective at stymieing the Blue Demons; DePaul did not score from the field in the last six minutes of the half. The Hoyas had a 35-32 advantage going into the break.
Both squads came out aggressive after intermission, but it was the Blue Demons who capitalized on a series of Georgetown misses — including a couple from point-blank range — to regain the lead. The Hoyas trailed by two, 40-38, at the under-16. Neither team scored for the next couple minutes of play. It was DePaul who finally broke the drought at 13:22, and Ed Cooley immediately called timeout.
Uncharacteristic turnovers from Mack and one from Iwuchukwu led to them getting a breather. It paid off, as Love got to the line and a block from Julius Halaifonua forced a turnover that ultimately earned him a pair of (converted) freethrows at the other end. That tied it up 42-42 with 11:38 remaining.
KJ Lewis drove to the basket, got his own rebound, and fought his way inside to put his team back on top with the and-1. After 10 points in the opening half, it was nearly the halfway point of the second before he found the bottom of the net again. DePaul had been enduring a 1-for-11 stretch themselves, including one basket prevented by a nimble block from Iwuchukwu.
Neither team scored for more than three minutes. A steal from Mack that he took to the basket was a painful miss, and Lewis’ follow was off the mark as well after collecting the offensive rebound. Eventually, a field goal and a pair of freethrows for DePaul put them back on top, 47-45, with 6:05 left to play.
Georgetown’s deficit grew to five after DePaul hit a long three; they were behind 46-51 with 2:21 to play. When Iwuchukwu was blocked from behind with 2 minutes remaining, it felt over, even as a couple of miscues from the Blue Demons left the door open a crack.
The shooting was more frigid than a January Chicago night. The overall offensive execution was yeeeesh. The turnover struggles were widespread. The Hoyas only scored one field goal on 23 attempts in the second half. They have now lost four straight to DePaul. The team should be (much, much) better than this.
After what I imagine will be a long and painful trek back to DC, Georgetown will host Seton Hall at 6pm on Saturday 1/10, airing on FS1.
Burn the tape. And the device being used to play it.
