Whew, that feels good.
On Tuesday night, the Georgetown Hoyas secured their first victory of the season, knocking off the American Eagles 79-57 behind Aminu Mohammed’s first career double-double.
It’s tough to classify any game in November as a “must win,” but Tuesday’s matchup with American was pretty darn close. The Eagles kept it competitive for much of the contest, but Georgetown pulled ahead for good with a 24-2 run midway through the second half. Mohammed finished with a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds. “Aminu’s going to have a great career here at Georgetown,” Patrick Ewing said after the win. “The sky’s the limit for him.”
Dante Harris was close behind with 13 points of his own, a much more characteristic outing for him after a disappointing showing in the season opener. In total, 11 Hoyas scored in what was a relatively balanced offensive attack.
After getting off to a slow start, Georgetown took a 6-5 lead on an Aminu Mohammed three pointer with 16:19 to go in the half. The Hoyas were able to maintain this lead thanks to some spotty shooting from the Eagles. American shot an ugly 28% from the field and 18% from three-point range in the first half. Despite these struggles from the field, American was able to keep it close for most of the opening period, as Georgetown also had their fair share of offensive struggles.
The Hoyas were finally able to gain some separation courtesy of a 9-0 run towards the end of the first half. Mohammed and Harris played a key role in building this lead. With 3:28 to go in the half, Mohammed threaded a half-court pass between defenders to find Harris for the open layup, forcing an Eagles timeout. Mohammed converted a layup of his own shortly thereafter, giving the Hoyas a 13-point lead, their largest of the half, with 1:59 to go until the break. American was able to stem the bleeding somewhat, scoring the last four points of the first half to enter the locker room trailing 38-29.
But as Hoya fans surely have come to expect, the second half would be far from easy. American opened with a quick 5-0 run to force a prompt Patrick Ewing timeout just over one minute into the half. From there, the two teams traded buckets for the next few minutes, with the Hoyas’ lead never exceeding seven.
Around the 13-minute mark, Georgetown began to win back some momentum. After a quiet first half, Donald Carey proved to be a spark plug offensively in the second half. He was an efficient 4 for 5 from the field after halftime, finishing the game with 12 points. The rest of the team fed off Carey’s energy, pushing the pace and taking control of the game in what proved to be a decisive 24-2 run. For much of this run, Patrick Ewing rolled with Carey and four freshmen—Tyler Beard, Jordan Riley, Jalin Billingsley, and Ryan Mutombo—on the floor. Each of the freshmen flashed signs of what Hoya fans hope is to come for this team. “We go hard, we push each other in practice, we’re just gonna continue doing that,” Mohammed said of the Hoyas’ young core.
Riley was particularly impressive, showing off his ability to attack the rim in transition and finish amid heavy traffic. He finished the game with 8 points on 3 for 6 shooting.
From that point forward, Georgetown’s lead was never threatened. The Hoyas led by 20 or more for the final eight minutes of the game, allowing Ewing to give walk-ons Chuma Azinge and Victor Muresan some game action. It was all smiles inside Capital One Arena as Georgetown cruised to their first win of the 2021-2022 campaign.
In comparison to Saturday’s loss, Georgetown’s defense looked much improved in the victory. “We tried to run them off the three-point line,” said Ewing. “We talked about that a lot this week after we got our butts kicked by Dartmouth.” However, it’s difficult to say how much of that credit should go to the Hoyas, and how much of it was simply American not making their shots. The Eagles shot just 34% from the field and missed numerous wide open three pointers that could have swung the momentum in their direction. Overall though, it’s encouraging to see things heading in the right direction for the Georgetown defense.
The Hoyas were also far more adept at getting to the foul line in Tuesday’s win. After attempting just nine free throws against Dartmouth, Georgetown took 26 foul shots against American. Moving forward, the Hoyas would like to knock down their free throws at a much higher clip, especially Mohammed, who shot just 4 of 9 from the charity stripe on Tuesday.
Tuesday night also saw the return of junior center Timothy Ighoefe, who missed the season opener with a concussion. Ighoefe wasn’t flashy, but he certainly had an impact on the game, grabbing 11 boards, throwing down a couple monster slams, and giving American trouble down low all night. Even with Ighoefe’s return to action, fellow centers Malcolm Wilson and Ryan Mutombo also saw significant minutes, perhaps due to Ighoefe getting into foul trouble. Collectively, Georgetown’s bigs played a big role in winning the rebounding battle by 19 and outsourcing American 40-28 in the paint. When asked about the center rotation after the win, Ewing was clear that he will continue to play all three centers moving forward: “If I have the opportunity to play all three of them, all three of them will play. We have some good bigs, and we have to develop them. The only way you can develop them is to give them opportunities.”
Even with the win, the Hoyas still have a lot to improve on before they hit the meat of the non-conference schedule. As a team, Georgetown shot 44% from the field and 29% from three-point range, not numbers that jump off the page. One area of concern is the shooting woes of Kaiden Rice, who was supposed to play the role of sharpshooter on this year’s team. On Tuesday, Rice was an abysmal 0 for 7 from beyond the arc. Given Rice’s deficiencies in other parts of his game, notably on the defensive end, he needs to be making shots if he is going to be a meaningful contributor to this team. I wouldn’t be surprised if freshman Jalin Billingsley earns himself a larger role, or even the starting job, at the forward position in the coming weeks.
I’m not here to nitpick too much, though. A win’s a win, and Tuesday night gave Georgetown fans a lot to be excited about.
“They got everything: point guard, shooting, size,” American Coach Mike Brennan said about the Hoyas after the game. “So yeah, they’re going to be good.”
Let’s hope he’s right.
