View From The Student Section: “Tri-ple Dig-its! Recap

Georgetown is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since the 2014-15 season thanks to another 20-point game from Jessie Govan, 19 points from Jahvon Blair, and double-digit scoring outputs from three others. The Hoyas were dominant throughout. They more than doubled the rebounding total of Mount St. Mary’s and held them to just 38.5% shooting from the field. The Mountaineers, who rely heavily on the three-ball on offense and creating mayhem on defense, struggled to impose their will on the game and never held a lead.Space Jam was the theme of the night. Monstars t-shirts, the opportunity to reenact Michael Jordan’s buzzer-beater, highlights from the Tune Squad-Monstars game at halftime, and even a Space Jam-themed cheerleading routine gave Georgetown students and fans alike were able to reminisce over a ‘90s classic. The only thing that was truly missing from the night was Jordan himself – it’s a shame we couldn’t bring him back!

The game was full of highlight reel plays bookended by spectacular efforts from Georgetown big men. Govan’s four-point play at the beginning of the game helped the Hoyas build an early cushion, while Chris Sodom’s emphatic rejection with less than a minute left in the second half put the finishing touches on a dominant showing on both ends of the floor. Other impressive plays included Jagan Mosely’s and-one midway through the first half, Jahvon Blair’s feed to Govan in the second half, and Antwan Walker’s alley-oop soon after that. Even though the game wasn’t close for a majority of the evening, the Hoyas certainly entertained throughout.

Mosely:

Heading into the game, if you had asked me who the student section would be most likely to harass throughout the night, I would have immediately responded by saying Junior Robinson, the Mountaineers’ 5’5” guard. While the diminutive Robinson – probably the only Division I basketball player I’m taller than – certainly got his share of flak, his 26 points on the night were enough to keep the spotlight off of him. Instead, we shifted to freshman guard Jonah Antonio, who struggled mightily all game. Antonio was frequently lined up in the corner of the court directly in front of the student section for much of the second half and we took full advantage. He was hounded just about every time his team had the ball – from questioning his ability to actually shoot a basketball after a collection of misses to wondering why he was even on the court, the students didn’t hold back. I’d say that we were successful in rattling him: he managed to shoot just 13.3% from the field, which was even worse than his prior two performances against Marquette and Notre Dame.

814Hoya’s Awards

I’ve been brainstorming ideas for my game recaps over the past few days; one thing I wanted to try out was creating a few “awards” that I could keep track of throughout the season, then choose the best of the best once the 2017-18 campaign concludes. I’ve come up with four ideas for awards: the Game MVP, My MVP, the Play of the Game, and the Target of the Game. Game MVP and Play of the Game are pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll focus on the other two. My personal MVP will be the player that I think made a unique and perhaps unexpected contribution. This player won’t always have the best statistics, but will be someone who stepped up when needed. The Target of the Game, simply enough, will focus on the opposing player who the student section harried the most.Without further ado, here are my awards for the Mount St. Mary’s Game.

Game MVP: Jessie Govan (20 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists). Govan was dominant tonight and continues to show promise early in his junior year. His perfect 3-3 shooting from beyond the arc helped stretch the floor and he also hit the boards hard on both ends of the floor, corralling 4 of his 14 rebounds on the offensive end.

814Hoya’s MVP: Jagan Mosely (15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists). Mosely was my MVP because he stepped up in a big way when Jonathan Mulmore picked up two early fouls. Mosely scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half and helped Georgetown hit the 100-point milestone with his last two. He was aggressive on the offensive end, which helped expose the Mountaineers’ weak interior defense.

Play of the Game: Antwan Walker (alley-oop from Jamorko Pickett with 6:24 left in second half). As I mentioned above, there were a lot of options, so this was a difficult choice. However, I’ve always been a big fan of alley-oops, tricks, and the like off of out-of bounds plays, so that’s what set Walker’s only points of the night apart from the rest of the options for me.

Walker:

Target of the Game: Jonah Antonio (Mount St. Mary’s’ “sharpshooter”). I already covered this in detail above, but this was an upset victory over Junior Robinson.

Better Late Than Never: Awards for Jacksonville Game

Game MVP: Jessie Govan (20 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 steals). Again, another game in which Jessie dominated. Marcus Derrickson also was fantastic, but just missed out on the nod.814Hoya’s MVP: Jagan Mosely (3 charges drawn). I promise these won’t all be repeats! Mosely put up better numbers on Wednesday night, but he still had a huge effect on Sunday with his defensive presence.

Play of the Game: Trey Dickerson (threaded the needle to Govan for a transition slam). Dickerson, who unfortunately missed out on Wednesday’s game with a concussion, made his presence felt by dropping an absolute dime to Govan. Hopefully he’ll be back on the court soon!

Dickerson:

Target of the Game: Tanner Rubio (Jacksonville guard). It’s not about how you start, but about how you finish. Rubio learned this lesson on Sunday after struggling for much of the afternoon after a hot start.