When I die, the 2021-2022 Georgetown Hoyas should be my pallbearers so they can let me down one last time.
Facing a DePaul team that is 10th in the Big East, the Hoyas couldn’t get it done in crunch time, falling 68-65 at home on Thursday night.
The Blue Demons led by seven points with under four minutes to play, but a late Georgetown run—punctuated by a go-ahead three pointer from Jalin Billingsely with 2:15 remaining—had the Hoyas eyeing their first conference victory. These hopes were short lived, however, as Javon Freeman-Liberty came up clutch for DePaul, and Georgetown failed to force overtime on the final possession of the game.
Freeman-Liberty finished with 25 points—including 17 in the second half—to lead all scorers. Aminu Mohammed led the Hoyas with 18 points and 9 rebounds, while Don Carey continued his stretch of solid play with 15 points of his own. Billingsley also chipped in 10 points, a career high for the freshman forward, and blocked three shots.
The first half of Thursday night’s contest was a rather ugly affair. The two teams combined for 21 turnovers and just 19 made field goals. Georgetown’s defense did show signs of improvement in the first half, forcing DePaul into several shot clock violations. However, it’s entirely possible that this reflects more on the Blue Demons’ offensive shortcomings than on anything the Hoyas did defensively.
After going back and forth for the opening 11 minutes, DePaul broke the game open with a predictable 12-0 run to push their advantage to double digits. Georgetown did respond with a strong spurt of their own to cut the halftime deficit to just four points.
Both teams seemed to find their groove somewhat coming out of the locker room. Malcolm Wilson had a strong start to the second half that included two thundering dunks that energized the crowd inside Capital One Arena. Despite getting the start, Wilson saw just 12 minutes of action. He made the most of his minutes, scoring nine points and blocking two shots. As a team, the Hoyas recorded an impressive nine total blocks.
“I thought he did a pretty good job for the 12 minutes that he played,” Ewing said of Wilson after the game. This doesn’t answer a whole lot of questions as to why Wilson saw just one minute of action in the final 16 minutes of game time.
For much of the second half, Carey and Mohammed carried the Hoyas’ offensive attack. With just over 11 minutes to play, Carey converted one of his patented four-point plays to give Georgetown the lead.
He followed that up with an and-one on the ensuing possession to push the Hoyas’ advantage to five, their largest lead of the night.
As soon as the momentum began to turn in the Hoyas’ favor, things began to fall apart for the home team. Maybe this Georgetown team simply isn’t used to playing with a lead (hard to blame them for that). Over the next five minutes, DePaul rattled off a 13-3 run to take back control.
I’ll give credit where credit is due: the Hoyas did turn up the intensity and claw their way back. Needing something to go their way, Ewing unleashed the full-court press. This produced a crucial turnover resulting in an Aminu Mohammed and-one to make it a one possession game. On the Hoyas’ next possession, Jalin Billingsley happened. With the shot clock expiring, Billingsley drained a pretty step-back three pointer to give Georgetown a one-point lead. Words can’t do it justice, so here’s the video instead.
But for everything that went right for Georgetown, the Hoyas still couldn’t get it done. Over the final two minutes, Georgetown scored just one point. In fact, the Hoyas missed five three pointers in the final minute alone, including three on the final possession which would have forced overtime. These weren’t desperation heaves, either. Don Carey and Kaiden Rice—the Hoyas’ resident sharpshooters—each had good looks but couldn’t find the bottom of the net.
Thursday night may well have been the Hoyas’ last good chance to get a win in conference play. Instead, Georgetown is staring an 0-19 regular season square in the face with just three games remaining until the Big East Tournament.
This certainly feels like rock bottom. But hey, I’ve been surprised before.
