I feel sick. For much of the first half, Georgetown had #1 Duke on the ropes, and despite a Blue Devils run to end the first half, the game remained tied at the break. Then, the second half happened. Sure, the Hoyas made plenty of mistakes, but the biggest s**tshow of the entire game came from the refs. Even if the refs weren’t directly responsible for the Georgetown loss, they robbed us what could’ve been an all-timer of a game between the Blue Devils and the Hoyas. The Hoyas ultimately fell to the Duke Blue Devils by a score of 81 to 73.
Georgetown needed a hot start Friday and they got just that. In the game’s opening minutes, the Hoyas went on a 9-2 run fueled by stellar defense. Jagan Mosely was crucial on that end of the floor, taking a charge and then forcing a jump ball on the ensuing possession. Georgetown’s sophomore guard duo was hot on offense, with James Akinjo scoring the team’s first four points and Mac McClung hitting two three pointers. Good ball movement around the perimeter opened up McClung on the second of these, which gave the Hoyas a 12-5 lead at the under-16 timeout.
To the surprise of none, Duke responded with a mini-run of their own, scoring six consecutive points to pull within one and force Ewing to call a quick timeout. The Blue Devils’ offensive rebounding was crucial in keeping it close early on. Despite shooting just 39% from the floor, Duke tallied 9 offensive rebounds, with six of them coming in the first few minutes.
Qudus Wahab came in for Yurtseven off the bench, and instead of being fazed by going head-to-head against one of the best centers in Vernon Carey, he rose to the challenge. Wahab and the rest of the Hoya reserves were pivotal in opening up a 22-12 Georgetown lead with 9:06 left in the half.
Vernon Carey nevertheless was carrying the Blue Devils, scoring 12 of Duke’s 20 points 15 minutes into the game. Duke also got a big assist from the referees, as a number of questionable calls went the Blue Devils’ way.
Duke then went on a 12-4 run to end the half. During this stretch, Georgetown’s half-court offense was plagued by turnovers, as they Hoyas committed 13 turnovers in the first half. For Duke’s offense, Carey continued his dominance on the inside, which included a game-tying dunk and a go-ahead laup with under two minutes to play in the half. Despite this, a lay-up from Akinjo tied the game at 33 heading into halftime.
The second half started out poorly for the Hoyas, with Duke quickly scoring 18 points in the first 4 minutes. Georgetown looked utterly lost, allowing two easy buckets on inbounds passes and turning the ball over multiple times offensively.
In the first half, Yurtseven was a non-factor, playing just six minutes due to foul trouble and not scoring or rebounding. He began to find a rhythm early in the second half, scoring 7 quick points, but then was forced to return to the bench after picking up his third foul.
The foul-a-rama continued, with the Hoyas tallying up yet more fouls and Duke taking these opportunities to run up the score with their free throws. Patrick Ewing got a technical foul after yet another atrocious foul call, and Louis Orr had to restrain him. He told Orr to “get off me”, and look legitimately close to swinging some punches with the refs. Even the ESPN announcers were complaining about the bad calls. That’s how you know it was bad.
However, the Hoyas were never out of striking distance, usually remaining within the range of a ten point deficit or so. All it would take was one run and the Hoyas would be back in business. Unfortunately, that would require the Hoyas to get some stops, something that they struggled to do for much of the second half.
The Hoyas went on a mini-run however, with just several minutes remaining. A tip-in from Yurtseven with 1:58 to play cut the deficit to just eight. The Blue Devils then had a critical turnover off of a travel, and the Hoyas scored off of that to bring the deficit within six with 90 seconds remaining.
After being nonexistent for the first half, Yurtseven single-handledly willed the Hoyas back to within single digits against Duke by chipping in 21 points in the second half alone. To help with that, the Hoyas went on a 10-0 run in the last four minutes and thirty seconds leading up to the last 30 seconds to make it a four point game. However, the Hoyas just couldn’t finish it out, and as they turned to the desperation of foul-a-rama to turn over the ball, the game ended up out of reach. The Hoyas ended up losing by the final score of 81-73, a respectable performance given the odds given before the game of a 13 point Duke win.
As much as I hate to complain about the refs, holy hell, that was bad. A game never goes one way because of the refs, but it really did feel like the momentum was being sapped because of it at times. I really do wish we could’ve seen a game where the Hoyas were able to play the Blue Devils in a true game of basketball.
Despite that, the Hoyas have shown they can hang with the cream of the crop, and were able to successfully take down a ranked team in Texas on neutral ground. Overall, this was a successful Empire Classic, even if the heartbreak of losing to Duke when we had them oh-so-close is still fresh in our minds. Just the fact that we took down a ranked team on neutral territory, and came within single digits of taking down the #1 team in the country, that gives us Hoyas fans a lot to be proud of.
Dare I say, “RANK GEORGETOWN!”? Yeah, rank Georgetown.
