Well, they got it done, folks. Georgetown took down Seton Hall with a final score of 81-75 tonight.
While the game was sloppy, the Hoyas refused to go down, finishing the game shooting 50% from the field and 63% from three-point range. Georgetown had five players finish in double figures, with senior Jamorko Pickett leading the charge with twenty points on 8-for-11 shooting, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Behind him was grad transfer Chudier Bile with sixteen points, sophomore Qudus Wahab with a double-double of eleven points and eleven rebounds, and standout freshman point guard Dante Harris, who tacked on 14 points of his own to go along with seven rebounds and eight assists.
Today’s contest began as a surprisingly fast-paced, high-octane, offensive game. The last time the Hoyas and Pirates met, Georgetown had just 19 points at halftime, but today they eclipsed that mark with 11 minutes left in the first half. After winning the tip, Pickett led the way early, and the Hoyas saw numerous open looks from deep. Although the Hoyas at one point held a 28-16 lead, Seton Hall’s intense man defense and full-court pressure allowed them to crawl back into the game.
The Blue and Gray did a great job on Seton Hall’s standout and Big East Player of the Year contender Sandro Mamukelashvili, holding the big man to eight points, six of which came in the closing possessions of the half. Georgetown once again struggled with turnovers, committing seven in the first half, and despite being the top rebounding team in the conference, the Hoyas were outrebounded 20-16 in the first half. Entering the break, Georgetown held a 38-35 lead over the Pirates, shooting an impressive 50% from the field and 56% from three-point territory.
But come on everybody, this is Georgetown basketball. If you ever read a promising paragraph, you know the worst is yet to come. Or was it? The second half was a different story to start. The half opened with a screen play that led to a massive dunk by Ike Obiagu, but that was just the beginning. In the following possessions, Jamorko Pickett threw the ball away and Mamukelashvili nailed an open three-pointer to allow Seton Hall to take a 42-38 lead early in the second half which caused Coach Ewing to call one of his infamous early timeouts. Postgame, Ewing told us, “Basketball is a game of runs, we made a run in the first half, and we wanted to prevent them from making a run in the second half. We had to keep our composure because the team that makes a run at the end of the game is the team that ends up winning.”
The Hoyas began to play at the slower pace of the Pirates, and therefore were unable to establish an early flow on offense. Their offensive play was marred by bad passes and travels that allowed Seton Hall to take an early lead in the second half. That being said, Georgetown’s shooting remained fairly stable, and that, along with Seton Hall’s fouling issues, allowed the Hoyas to stay in the game. Chudier Bile and Jamorko Pickett continued knocking down shots from just about everywhere, and Qudus Wahab anchored the paint defense, sending back three shots of his own as part of the team’s six blocks. Dante Harris continued being a certified “junkyard dog”, and Jagan Mosely offered his overwhelming support for the freshman on Twitter midgame.
The turning point in the game had to be the TWO four-point plays by Donald Carey, with the first coming with eight minutes remaining and the second with five remaining. The game had been back and forth with shots, fouls, and turnovers (a lot of them), with Georgetown holding a slight advantage. Carey’s plays were met with an explosion of reactions from the Georgetown bench, and the game continued to be a slugfest.
Throughout the game, there were six lead changes and five ties. In the end, the defense came up big late for the Hoyas, as Jamorko Pickett, Dante Harris, and Qudus Wahab all forced several Seton Hall turnovers. Despite coughing the ball up an alarming seventeen times throughout the game, the Hoyas truly played with grit today.
When I asked Jamorko Pickett about the team’s confidence going forward and how this run will affect the Hoyas’ mindset entering the final four games of the season, he told me “We’ve got four games left, and we wanna win as many as possible. We definitely wanna win out in order to build momentum for the Big East Tournament, and if we do that, anything’s possible.”
With tonight’s victory, your Georgetown Hoyas move to 7-10 on the season, 5-7 in conference play, and a refreshing 4-2 since their COVID break. The Hoyas face UConn at home on Tuesday night and will look to contain star sophomore James Bouknight following his return from an elbow injury.
