Up 11 points at the half, Georgetown was in prime position to notch perhaps their biggest win of the season against the 16th-ranked Butler Bulldogs. Thanks to a series of second half miscues, those dreams came crashing down, as the Hoyas ultimately lost 69-64. Butler’s Sean McDermott led all scorers with 25 points, knocking down seven three-pointers, including the go-ahead three with 49 seconds to play.
The first few minutes of the game were a low-scoring affair, featuring sub-par play from both sides. After a few minutes of back-and-forth basketball, Mac McClung and Omer Yurtseven took a seat on the bench, and the Hoyas surprisingly rattled off a 6-0 run to open up a 12-9 lead. Qudus Wahab played an important role in this stretch, and later threw down a monstrous dunk to continue Georgetown’s momentum. Wahab was a bright spot for Georgetown, scoring 10 points and adding 5 rebounds in just 10 minutes of action. With Yurtseven shooting just 4 of 14 from the floor, the calls for Qudus to get more minutes were in full effect.
Butler was largely able to remain competitive in the first half thanks to the play of McDermott. With Kamar Baldwin, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, limited to just one point before halftime, McDermott stepped up, tallying 11 points and three three-pointers.
McClung returned to the floor, and Georgetown put together its best basketball of the night in the closing minutes of the first half. Terrell Allen and McClung hit back-to-back threes to extend Georgetown’s lead to 11 with 3:39 left until the break. With everything going the Hoyas’ way, Jordan Tucker hit a big shot for Butler, stemming the tide and sending the teams to the locker room with the Hoyas leading 43-32.
Coming out of the break, the Bulldogs wasted no time in clawing back, putting together a 7-0 run, prompting a quick timeout from Coach Ewing. This did little to slow down Butler, as McDermott went on the attack, picking up right where he left off in the first half. Georgetown had apparently not learned their lesson, as they afforded McDermott multiple open looks, allowing him to score 11 consecutive points for the Bulldogs.
In less than six minutes, Butler had turned an 11-point deficit into a four-point lead.
A big factor in Butler’s first half struggles was their failure to take care of the basketball. The Bulldogs committed 12 turnovers before halftime, which the Hoyas turned into 17 points on the other end of the floor. In the postgame press conference, Coach LaVall Jordan was clear that this was a point of emphasis in the halftime locker room. His team evidently got the message, as Butler committed just three turnovers in the second half.
Despite their slow start to the half, the Hoyas still had a chance in the game’s final minutes. Jagan Mosely and Jahvon Blair each knocked down two big three-pointers on consecutive possessions to tie the game at 60 with 4:39 to play. Butler quickly responded with a bucket of their own to go back up two.
With Georgetown down two, McClung attacked the rim and attempted to finish it off the glass. The shot was blocked, but everyone present looked on in disbelief as no whistle was blown for goaltending. “To me, that was a goaltend at the end,” commented Ewing after game. “It wasn’t called, but you can’t cry over spilled milk.”
Despite this missed call, and generally poor officiating throughout the night, the Hoyas responded admirably. After Baldwin hit two free throws to put Butler up four, Mosely aggressively drove the lane and converted a quick two for Georgetown with 1:55 to play. In need of a stop, the Hoyas got exactly that, forcing a Bulldog turnover and breaking out into a two-on-one fastbreak. While Yurtseven failed to convert the alley-oop from Blair, he got fouled in the shooting process, and proceeded to make both at the free-throw line. With the game tied and a minute to play, Hoya fans collectively held their breath.
Guess who took the big shot for Butler? Yep, Sean McDermott. Out of a timeout, the Bulldog staff drew up a screen-the-screener play for McDermott, and the Hoyas failed to cover it. To the surprise of no one, McDermott knocked down the open look, a fitting end to his spectacular night.
Georgetown did have one last chance to tie it; Mosely got off an open three-point attempt from the top of the key, but he failed to find the bottom of the net. Butler secured the defensive rebound and all but clinched the game by knocking down two free-throws on the other end.
With a handful of Georgetown’s starters struggling, it was surprising the Hoyas even had a chance in this one. While Yurtseven and McClung led the team with 14 and 12 points, respectively, they shot a combined 8 of 30 from the floor. That is not going to cut it for a team that needs their two leading scorers to be at their best. Additionally, Jamorko Pickett was notably ineffective Tuesday, scoring zero points on 0 for 7 shooting. It’s tough to say anything good about that stat line.
Regardless, this loss stings all the more given how close the Hoyas were to getting over the hump. It’s hard not to point fingers at the coaching staff. The team was not ready to compete coming out of halftime and Ewing failed to devise a way to slow down McDermott even after he did damage from deep in the first half. The fact that McDermott was the one who hit the critical shot is as much an indictment on the staff’s inability to make in-game adjustments as it is the fault of the players on the floor.
After Tuesday’s loss, Georgetown falls to a disappointing 2-6 in Big East play. With two home losses already, finishing the year with a conference record anywhere close to .500 feels like a lot to ask. At this point, all I’m hoping for is progress.
