Against DePaul on Wednesday night, Georgetown jumped out to an early 19-7 lead. Was this a rejuvenated Georgetown team? Not so fast. The Hoyas collapsed in the second half, falling to the Blue Demons 82-74.
Georgetown (6-16, 0-11 Big East), led by Don Carey’s 12 first half points, seemed poised to end their winless streak against the Blue Demons (12-10, 3-9 Big East). With Aminu Mohammed driving recklessly to the basket, Carey hitting threes, and Kaiden Rice draining shots off the bench, this briefly looked like the team the Hoyas expected to be at the beginning of the season. Less than 10 minutes into the game, Georgetown held a 12-point advantage, which would be their largest of the evening.
The Hoyas also played stingy defense in the first half, holding the Blue Demons to 34% shooting from the field and 18% from beyond the arc. On their end, Georgetown gained some separation thanks to 5 of 9 shooting from the three-point line and 10 points off the bench. Still, the Hoyas allowed the Blue Demons to claw back into the game and had to settle for a narrow 31-30 halftime lead, which seemed to be asking for trouble.
Georgetown’s second half collapse—which included a 26-0 run for DePaul—was characterized by defensive breakdowns and major offensive lapses. Georgetown looked flat coming out of the locker room and seemed to have lost interest in putting in effort on both ends of the floor. Patrick Ewing had to burn multiple timeouts early, which would come back to haunt the Hoyas when DePaul went on their run. With 11:44 to play, the two teams were tied at 49. Fast forward to seven minutes of gametime later, and the Blue Demons led by 26. Georgetown went this entire stretch without scoring and offered little resistance to DePaul’s scoring onslaught on the other end. During the second half, the Blue Demons managed to shoot 73.1% from the field and 63.6% from beyond the arc.
Kaiden Rice was the lone bright spot during the second half, knocking down threes from all over the court. Rice ended the night scorching with 24 points in 25 minutes, finishing 8 of 13 from downtown. However, Rice’s individual performance wasn’t enough to avoid a disastrous outing for the Hoyas. On a night where both the program and fans looked for hope, Georgetown once again took a step back.
The Hoyas travel back home to D.C. still looking for their first conference win of the season in a matchup against Creighton on Saturday.
