Heart rates of Hoya fans across the country collectively spiked towards the end of tonight’s second half, as Georgetown avoided a late meltdown in a 72-66 senior night victory over Xavier(13-6, 6-6 Big East).
Georgetown is beginning to prove that its remarkable second half turnaround is for real. With tonight’s win, Georgetown is now 9-11 on the season with a solid 7-8 record in conference play. The Hoyas have gone 6-3 since the COVID hiatus, and could potentially finish as high as 5th in the Big East standings with a win at UConn in Saturday’s season finale. Finishing fifth in the conference standings would earn Georgetown a bye to the Big East Tournament Quarterfinal. In the postgame press conference, Chudier Bile said, “Whoever’s next on that schedule, we want to win that game…We can play with any team in the country I feel like.”
The Hoyas came out of the gate strong, absolutely dominating Xavier in the paint and on the boards while simultaneously playing suffocating defense. Chudier Bile and Timothy Ighoefe both delivered highlight worthy blocks and seemingly contested a majority of Xavier’s interior looks and drives to the basket. The Hoyas also capitalized on their size advantage on the other end, racking up offensive boards and subsequent second chance points. Georgetown limited Xavier to a paltry 23 first half points and 32.4% shooting from the field on the game. Xavier’s two most potent scoring threats, Paul Scruggs and Zach Freemantle, struggled to establish any sort of rhythm in the first half, finishing the night shooting just 1-5 and 4-15 from the field, respectively.
Not much changed during the first 10 minutes of the second half, with Georgetown gradually building its lead to 15 points. Ewing’s squad stretched the lead to 57-39 with just over 10 minutes to go following a Qudus Wahab slam.
With around eight minutes to go, however, Georgetown began to show serious shades of its former self. A careless turnover led to an easy Freemantle layup in transition to cut the Hoya lead to 60-46 and marked the start of an insane Xavier run, outscoring Georgetown 15-3 in just under four minutes. KyKy Tandy scored or assisted on 15 points in a five minute span as the Musketeers cut the lead to 66-63 at the 2:06 mark.
Just as the Fox Sports commentator asked if Georgetown would right the ship on senior night, Jamorko Pickett pulled down a contested offensive rebound in heavy traffic and converted a much-needed and-one.
The final two minutes were stressful for Georgetown fans, but the Musketeers failed to convert several critical opportunities to extend the game. The Hoyas made some boneheaded turnovers down the stretch and seemed to struggle with Xavier’s full-court pressure, but they did not relinquish their lead at a single point in the second half.
Chudier Bile served as Georgetown’s engine on both ends of the floor, finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks while shooting 4/7 from downtown. Pickett added 18 points and 7 rebounds in 38 minutes. Wahab also finished in double figures, scoring 13 points and securing 7 boards of his own despite finding himself on the bench as Ewing went small to close the game. Bile approved of the decision to go small, saying after the game, “When we go small we can switch 1-5. We can play a lot of different ways, which will give a lot of teams trouble”.
Jahvon Blair, who missed the win over DePaul due to a coach’s decision, did not start. He did play 28 minutes off of the bench and appears to be close to regaining his usual role. Blair scored 12 points but had an inefficient night, shooting just 3 of 13 from the field and 1 for 7 from beyond the arc.
Coach Ewing applauded his team’s defensive effort, claiming that his players were “locked in” and “playing their best basketball of the season.” He said that the Hoyas must maintain their level of defensive intensity if they hope to “do some damage in the Big East Tournament.”
If Georgetown can continue to make strides on offense by cutting down on turnovers and hitting open threes on post kickouts, they will be competitive in their remaining games this season. Other squads in the Big East should be on notice, because the Hoyas are ready to make some noise in March.
