Tonight, it was Georgetown’s veteran players who helped lead the Hoyas to a 83-65 win over the Siena Saints. Kaiden Rice led Georgetown with 23 points, including seven made threes, while former Siena player Don Carey chipped in 20 points of his own against his old team.
The game started strong, with an early Aminu Mohammed steal and a layup on the fast break to score Georgetown’s first points of the game. The student section loudly cheered at this turn of events, and overall the student turnout was strong for a Friday night game against a so-so Siena team. Threes from Kaiden Rice and Dante Harris padded the Hoyas’ early lead, and Don Carey converted an and-one.
Georgetown’s offensive efforts were (surprisingly) backed up by their work on the defensive end. In the early going, Georgetown had a strong defensive showing, creating a shot-clock violation and another near-violation, as well as generally stifling Siena’s ability to generate good looks. Timothy Ighoefe was a defensive anchor early on, shutting down anyone who was near the paint.
However, good things (at least when it comes to Georgetown) don’t last.
Siena went on a 6-0 run, and one of the low-lights for Georgetown was Aminu Mohammed getting stuffed going for a layup. Mohammed went for the rebound and got it, went back up again, and got blocked again. Although the result wasn’t great, the process was good, as Mohammed didn’t give up on the play and continued to hustle to get the rebound even after getting blocked the first time.
Meanwhile, the wheels started to come off for Georgetown’s defense. Over-helping from the Hoyas led to many wide-open threes for Siena, although the defensive woes didn’t become calamitous until later on in the half.
Georgetown soon went on a 11-2 run, aided by four Siena turnovers in the span of approximately four minutes. Eventually, the Hoyas and the Saints traded baskets as the Saints drew slightly closer.
Georgetown’s defense continued its slow-motion implosion, with a deadly combination of over-helping and just plain old getting fooled. The Hoyas continued to roll with their hard hedge defense as the Saints spammed pick and roll plays. The results (or the lack thereof) were alarming. Siena got as close as within three points of the Hoyas with four minutes left in the first half, but that was as close as it would get.
Dante Harris tried his damndest to keep the Hoyas ahead. In an electrifying sequence, Harris stripped the ball from behind, and turned right back around to drill the three.
Later, Harris outdueled a Siena forward for the rebound and brought it to the other end for a three. At another point, he battled through traffic for an acrobatic layup that quite literally looked impossible to make, flexing his muscles for the student section.
At the end of the first half, the Hoyas had shot a torrid 57% from the field, 64% from three, and had only four turnovers. Going into the locker room with a 10-point lead against Siena, fans likely thought (myself included) that the Hoyas’ shooting stats were unsustainable. As it turned out, the hot hands from Georgetown’s roster were there to stay for the rest of the game.
Siena opened the second half weakly, with a nearly three minute-long scoring drought while the Hoyas went on a 7-0 run of their own to put the game out of reach. However, being gracious hosts, the Hoyas matched Siena’s three-minute scoring drought with a three minute scoring drought of their own and committed three turnovers over that span.
The momentum of the game was permanently decided when Don Carey blocked an Andrew Platek shot and passed it to Tyler Beard for a nice layup on the fastbreak. Not to be outdone, on the next possession, Jalin Billingsley stole the ball from Javian McCollum which bounced towards Jordan Riley, who made the alley-oop pass back to Billinglsey for an emphatic dunk. By this point, the score was 62-44 with just over 11 minutes left, but the momentum of the Hoyas felt as if it would keep on going.
From that point on, the rest of the second half was never in doubt. Although Siena forward Jackson Stormo tried to make it a game, scoring 15 of his 25 points in the second half, the Saints could never pull within striking distance of the Hoyas. Over the course of the game, Siena attempted 32 three-pointers, of which their head coach Carmen Maciariello said after the game was the most they’ve taken “probably since I’ve been coach here.” The Hoyas were lucky that they only shot just over 28% on those attempts, especially given some of the looks the Saints had.
Also of concern for the Hoyas was the fact that the comparatively smaller Siena team outrebounded Georgetown all night, with 35 rebounds to the Hoyas’ 29. After the game, Patrick Ewing expressed his displeasure with the Hoyas’ rebounding, particularly on the offensive boards. “I told them if we want to beat elite teams, we can’t give up 15 offensive rebounds,” Ewing said.
These ended up being moot concerns (for this game at least), because the Hoyas continued their hot shooting from the first half into the second, finishing the game with a 57.1% hit rate from the field and a staggering 66.7% from three. This was largely due to the contributions of Kaiden Rice, who hit seven of 10 three-pointers enroute to a 23 point night. Rice’s hot shooting was a welcome showing given his cold stretch in the first two games, and Rice finally flashed the sharp-shooting ability he had been touted for. After the game, Patrick Ewing said that following Rice’s struggles in the first two games, he sat down with Rice and had a discussion. “I told him I believe in you; there’s a reason why you’re here. And he showed why today.”
The 20 point contribution of team captain Don Carey also helped carry the Hoyas to victory today. Carey has showcased a new dimension to his offensive game this year, being much more aggressive in getting to the rim and being an overall more skilled player.
Overall, four Hoyas scored in double digits tonight. Beyond Rice and Carey, Dante Harris chipped in 14 points with gritty play, and Aminu Mohammed had 11. Although Mohammed had a bad night from the field (2 for 10), he still got into double-digits because he was a foul magnet and made 7 of 9 shots from the charity stripe, a significant improvement from the last game.
It’s encouraging that even on an off night for Mohammed, he still found a way to contribute and that the Hoyas were able to blow out a lesser opponent. After taking care of Siena on this brisk Friday night, the Hoyas will be back in action late on Thanksgiving night against the San Diego State Aztecs, who will represent a step up in the level of competition.
