Mack, Peavy not enough with Epps, Sorber injured
Your Georgetown Hoyas dug themselves into a hole and couldn’t escape, falling to the DePaul Blue Demons by a score of 73-68. Drew Fielder (19 points, 8 reb, 2 ast) and Malik Mack (19 points, 6 ast) led the scoring for the Hoyas. Caleb Williams added 10 points and 6 rebounds, while Curtis Williams Jr. also scored in double digits. Micah Peavy snagged 10 rebounds.
The setup should have been ideal for a home court advantage. A weekend night game, with classes in session, and the Hoyas as a rare favorite. However, as viewers on CBSSN were waiting for the latest battle of Ohio to end, Thompson’s Towel tweeted that both Thomas Sorber and Jayden Epps were not dressed for tonight’s game. This was not good news.
The Blue Demons had not won a BIG EAST game in two years less a day, but they did take #7 Marquette to OT earlier in the week, while the Hoyas had let the second half get away from them in a close loss to St. John’s.
Early minutes saw a quick pace in terms of number of trips to each end of the court, though each team managed only a single field goal through the first 2.5 minutes. Caleb Williams broke through on a fourth-chance shot from directly under the basket, then Enright hit an up & under shot for DePaul.
Georgetown missed a couple of transition shots, but the Blue Demons had Gunn hit from the corner and Benson finished an alley-oop. Ed Cooley went deeper into the bench than usual early in the game, with Drew McKenna and Kayvaun Mulready in the game before 6 minutes had elapsed. The Hoyas could not find the bottom of the basket. With 12:48 to play in the first half, Georgetown trailed 15-5.
Out of a sorely needed timeout Malik Mack scored. However, DePaul immediately broke the press and reestablished the margin. Enduring the wrong end of a 15-2 run against the Blue Demons was not something I had on my Friday Night bingo card of pain. Switching to a smaller lineup and zone defense helped the Hoyas get a couple of stops, but it did not remove the lid from their basket.
At long last, a smooth pass from Fielder to Williams within spitting distance of the basket finally sneaked through, then Curtis Williams Jr. banked a physics-defying fallaway off the glass. Unfortunately, Georgetown was unable to continue sustain that momentum and close the gap further.
Georgetown had yet to make a basket from beyond the arc and was unable to penetate the DePaul zone to get closer looks, shooting less than 30% overall from the floor. Another turnover, an empty trip by the Hoyas, then fouling the shooter (twice) put them in an unthinkably crevasse, 39-22.
As the seconds wound down, an and-1 for Fielder and a long-awaited triple from Mack cut it back to 11, ending a disastrous and dispiriting half on a 6-0 run.
Georgetown opened the second half with a strong defensive possession, a steal from Mack, and a spin into a sunk jumper for Fielder. That was almost as many things as went correctly for the Hoyas in the entire opening period. Before they could use this sequence of events to their psychological advantage, Benson broke part of the basket at the DePaul end, which necessitated a lengthy pause while someone found a ladder in the bowels of Cap One.
The remainder of second half was better than the first half — that bar was set low. This group has fight, but it’s a tall order to overcome 30 points of regular scoring being trapped on the bench.
It was still a 12 point margin at the U12. A transition three by Fielder from Mack, followed by Mack again finding Caleb Williams for elbow jumper cut it to seven at 9 minutes to play. Then the Hoyas missed three straight three attempts.
At one point Mack went coast to coast after Fielder and others engineered a good defensive stop. As that basket dropped, Fielder spun quickly and collided with Enright, leading with his right shoulder, an encounter which the officials reviewed at the monitor. Fielder was assessed a dead ball technical, giving DePaul two shots (which they made) and the ball.
As DePaul attempted to get the ball in play the Hoyas leaned hard into the trap, nicked the TO, and Mack found Williams Jr. for a triple that banked home from hiiiigh off the glass. Margin back to six with just under 5 to play. We saw excellent defense by Caleb Williams out of the U4 to force the ball back to Georgetown. Williams Jr.’s spinning, lunging, circus shot was good from under the basket. The Hoyas stole it back off the inbounds, but Mack was called for a double dribble, only Georgetown’s second TO of the second half.
A drive to the hoop by Caleb Williams was blocked out of bounds, but the ball stayed with the Hoyas and a triple from Mack cut it to two. Georgetown was behind by a single basket, 65-63 with 1:43 remaining.
DePaul had possession; Gunn stepped out of bounds and turned it over. Though Mack missed under pressure, Williams Jr. had an eagle eye on the rebound. Once he snagged it, Coach Cooley called timeout with a fresh 20 second shot clock. Unfortunately, DePaul broke up the set play and hit a three late in the shot clock.
Georgetown got two of those back on a goaltending call at the other end, trailing 68-65 with 21.5 on the clock, but trading fouls for time didn’t work.
The announcers kept talking about the Hoyas’ lack of bench points, but that’s what happens when two of your players that get meaningful minutes (and points) off the bench are promoted to the starting lineup due to injuries. What did we learn tonight? Injuries are bad, and falling into a 17-point hole isn’t a recipe for victory.
It’s a quick turnaround, as Georgetown travels up to Philly for a 1/20 Monday evening game at Villanova (who also played tonight, besting Providence). That game is set to air on FS1 starting at 6pm.