Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images Hoyas head into new year 0-2 in conference play In a game to forget, Georgetown falls 81-51 to the Marquette Golden Eagles heading into the holidays. Georgetown closes their road campaign with a 1-2...

Hoyas head into new year 0-2 in conference play

In a game to forget, Georgetown falls 81-51 to the Marquette Golden Eagles heading into the holidays. Georgetown closes their road campaign with a 1-2 record, including an overtime win against Notre Dame, and losses to BIG EAST foes, Butler and Marquette.

After opening BIG EAST play with a loss to the Butler Bulldogs in Indianapolis, your Georgetown University Hoyas continued their road trip through the Midwest and traveled 4 hours north to Milwaukee to meet the Marquette Golden Eagles, the preseason favorites in the BIG EAST. Marquette played a strong non-conference schedule, beating #2 Kansas and #19 Texas but losing a nailbiter to #1 Purdue, which landed them as the #6 ranked team in the nation. However, earlier this week, they were upset at Providence to begin their BIG EAST season.

Off the jump, the Hoyas leapt out to a 7-2 lead with Dontrez Styles leading the way with a triple and a floater in transition. The Hoyas looked strong on both sides of the ball and held the lead 13-10 thanks to a couple of offensive rebounds from Supreme Cook (7 PTS, 11 REB), who continued to be a force on the offensive glass. But the Hoyas started to settle for jumpers on the next few possessions and squandered a soft 7-0 run, forcing Coach Cooley to burn his first timeout of the game halfway through the first stanza.

In the timeout, Cooley begged for some toughness, especially in the painted areas. Unfortunately, the run continued as Marquette’s Ben Gold (9 PTS, 6 REB) knocked down a pair of 3’s, while Tyler Kolek (13 PTS, 10 AST) - the BIG EAST’S Preseason Player of the Year - added a couple of wide open layups. The run was now 17-2 over 5 minutes. Thankfully the under 8 timeout brought reprieve to what was clearly an overwhelming situation for the Hoyas, who continued to launch contested 3’s. In all too familiar fashion, Georgetown was in the game even leading 13-10: you look down to grab a sip of water, look back up, and they’re down 27-15 with 6 minutes to go in the half.

The game was broken open and it only got worse: more 3’s from Marquette’s David Joplin (20PTS, 9 REB), alley-oops from Kolek to Oso Ighodaro (13 PTS), and Georgetown’s shooting was ice cold. Jayden Epps (14 PTS, 3 REB, 5 TO) struggled from downtown while Styles and Wayne Bristol Jr. (5 REB) couldn’t get floaters to fall. Every bounce seemed to go the Golden Eagles’ way - not that the bounces accounted for the 17-point deficit, but they certainly weren’t doing our young Hoyas any favors.

With 4 minutes to go in the half, Georgetown finally started to see some shots fall, but Tyler Kolek was too much for the Hoyas defense, logging a double-double in the contest. He was a swiss army knife: slicing to the cup for easy layups, facilitating the basketball with a purpose, and capping it all off with steals on the defensive end. In a sequence that summed up the game, the Hoyas had the last possession of the half out of a Marquette timeout. Epps threw a lollipop pass across the court that was promptly stolen. Luckily the Georgetown defense held, and the Hoyas were able to get the ball back with 10 seconds left. Epps called his own number, ran through a double team and hummed a shot off the glass that didn’t catch any iron. The Hoyas hung tough for the first 8 minutes of the game, but we were all waiting for the Marquette explosion. When it arrived, it was relentless. The Golden Eagles led 41-24.

The second half brought more of the same. Marquette continued to have their say on the offensive side of the ball, and Georgetown did not make them work hard defensively with a game total of 19 turnovers. Georgetown looked mentally and physically defeated, while Marquette mercilessly shot the 3-ball to a 29 point lead: 60-31, with 12 minutes left in the game.

Shaka Smart must’ve forgotten that Ed Cooley moved to Georgetown (or wanted to avenge his recent loss to Providence somehow) because out of the under 12 timeout, with a 29 point lead, he decided to open up into a man-to-man full court press. It immediately resulted in a Rowan Brumbaugh (3 AST, 4 REBS) turnover and a frustration intentional foul. The game started to feel like a well-attended practice, and Georgetown’s scoring drought ticked past 7 minutes. The clock moved like it was a Tuesday morning after a long holiday weekend: with 6 minutes left in the game, the Golden Eagles had doubled the Hoyas score 70-35.

To close off 2023, Georgetown was run out of Fiserv Forum, losing by 30: 81-51. There is a reason Marquette was the BIG EAST preseason favorite and is ranked 6th in the country. It showed tonight. They beat GU in every facet of the game. Georgetown was clearly fatigued from having 3 games in 8 days, and from the eye-test, every shot seemed to fall short for the Hoyas. Unfortunately, this a game to flush and forget. Shooting 32% from the field with 19 turnovers makes it hard to beat any team, especially a team with national championship aspirations.

The 10 day holiday break will be a chance for Georgetown to reassess before getting ready to play another BIG EAST contender: the #12 ranked Creighton Blue Jays in DC on January 2nd. The BIG EAST is no joke this year and for Georgetown to win any games, they are going to have to show a lot more than they did tonight. This was a tough one to watch, but like I said after the Rutgers game, this is going to be a tough season. We just have to trust Ed Cooley. He did it before at Providence. He’ll do it again at Georgetown.

Hoya Saxa!

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