THE ORANGE HAS BEEN JUICED! What a game out of the Hoyas as they made a statement against the Syracuse Orange, winning 79-75. For the first time this season, the pieces came together in front of a packed house at Capital One Arena. What a game.
The Hoyas came out of the gates firing. They played good defense, forced turnovers, rebounded on both ends of the court, and made their shots. For the first eight minutes of the game it looked like their game. Kaiden Rice and Don Carey led the way for the Hoyas, shooting a collective 5-12 from deep after starting the game red hot, but their play seemingly fell off as the half went on. Aminu Mohammed played like Aminu Mohammed does, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking one shot, but he struggled shooting from the field.
But as we know all too well, each time the Hoyas made a statement, the Orange found an answer. Unsurprisingly, the 2-3 zone (which turned out to be more of a high 4-1) forced the young Hoyas into some tough spots, forcing four turnovers in the first half, but it felt like a whole lot more. But more than anything, the thing that killed the Hoyas was their inability to control the paint on defense. In the first half alone, the Hoyas gave up 22 points in the paint as Syracuse’s Jesse Edwards had his way with the Georgetown bigs.
In an attempt to swing the momentum back in his favor, Patrick Ewing tried to go small with Jalin Billingsley at the 5, but this turned out to be the wrong decision in the first half. In the second half, it was a different story. With Mohammed hanging around the free throw line and Collin Holloway on the block, the Hoyas were able to find some holes in Syracuse’s zone and dominated.
After halftime, we saw a completely different Georgetown team. The Hoyas played with an intensity that we haven’t seen from them this season. Georgetown found their stride early and began the half on a quick run to erase the ten-point deficit from the half. Once they settled into the game, the Hoyas found themselves running a few effective offensive sets which allowed them to move the ball around the zone and find solid looks at the rim.
Once again, Aminu Mohammed led the way after finding his scoring touch in the second half. Once he found his sweet stop in the paint, he took over. In the second half, he scored 20 points in just 14 minutes. He finished the night with by far his best stat line of his young career, scoring 23 points on 7/14 shooting with 13 rebounds, 5 assists, two blocks and two steals. He showed poise coming down the stretch and truly put the team on his back. While he’s played well up to this point, this was his coming out game. Aminu Mohammed is here.
Although Kaiden Rice cooled off a little in the second half, he finished the day scoring 15 points on 5/15 shooting. But of all his makes today, his biggest came with just over a minute left as he stuck a dagger in Syracuse’s side, putting the Hoyas up two, basically squeezing the last bit of OJ out of the Orange. While it was not his most efficient shooting performance, Rice has proved over the last two games that he will be an asset for the Hoyas going forward.
Possibly the most impressive performances of the night that you will not see reflected on the score sheet came from Tyler Beard. For the second straight game, Beard proved to us that he has what it takes to be an effective point guard in college. Tonight, Beard came in after Dante Harris came down awkwardly on his leg, forcing him to exit the game. For the ensuing five or so minutes, Beard stepped in almost flawlessly. He was able to break down Syracuse’s zone and play outstanding defense like a four year veteran. In 27 minutes over the past two games, Beard has produced 10 assists while only turning the ball over once. He is turning into the definition of an unselfish impact player.
Finally, and possibly most significant was the Hoyas’ improved defense. While the centers continued to get burned inside and they did allow some open three pointers as a result of overhelping, the defensive effort today looked much improved from prior games. Ewing’s decision to go small allowed the Hoyas to switch on almost every pick, allowing them to play tighter defense than usual. In the second half in particular, the Hoyas found stops coming down the stretch and seriously upped their pressure which ended up being the difference maker. Syracuse seemingly had few answers for the Hoyas’ defense.
Ultimately, this game gave us a preview of what we can hopefully look forward to for the rest of the season. If we look back just six days, we thought there was no hope and were ready to give up on the season, but today I am here to tell you that there is in fact hope. To be fair, this was one game and there are bigger tests ahead, but it shows progress and grit that we didn’t think this team had. As Patrick Ewing said in his postgame press conference, “all these games we’ve played so far are to help us get ready for what’s coming up next.”
With this win, the Hoyas improve to 5-4 on the season and 5-1 at home. Georgetown will take on Howard this Wednesday with hopes of keeping their streak of good play alive.
