‘FRUSTRATING TIME’: Hoyas Lose 25th Consecutive Conference Game to Villanova, 73-57

Your Georgetown Hoyas’ conference winless streak continued tonight at Capital One Arena to a crowd of mostly Villanova fans. Also in attendance tonight were President John DeGioia and Director of Athletics Lee Reed, after a statement to the AP earlier today.

As has become the case in recent times, the Hoyas made the game interesting for a brief part in the first half before the better team got their feet under them towards the end of the first period. The second half would lead to more of the same as the Hoyas, outmatched, slowly succumbed to a 73-57 defeat to set the BIG EAST record for consecutive conference losses.

Georgetown started without Jay Heath (hand) and Wayne Bristol, Jr (concussion-like symptoms) and had Bryson Mozone in the lineup with Primo Spears, Brandon Murray, Akok Akok, and Qudus Wahab.

The first half finished tied at 35, with Georgetown shooting 15 for 31 from the field and 2-10 from three, while Villanova shot 11-28 from the floor and 5-12 from beyond the arc. Akok had 6 points and Primo Spears had 5 points and 6 assists. Brandon Murray had 9 points in 19 minutes and a thunderous dunk.

The second half led to familiar results as the Hoyas quickly found themselves in a deficit that slowly grew for the remainder of the period. Shooting only 21% in the second half, the Hoyas were out scored 38-22.

Due to injuries to Jay Heath and Wayne Bristol Jr, Hoya fans finally got to see some of their young talent get some run. It wasn’t until, however, Mozone and Murray were injured that the bench was absolutely necessary.

Sophomore Jordan Riley (12 pts, 5 REBs and 2 STLs) showed a ton of promise as he made the most of his 28 minutes shooting 4-10 and 4-5 from FT. Freshmen D’ante Bass and Denver Anglin combined for 25 minutes but neither were able to add more to the box score. Georgetown had only 9 bench points in each half. Calls for the reserves to play more we’re not meant to come to fruition under these circumstances.

Spears scored only three points in the second half and Akok had 5 points and 6 rebounds (11 pts and 10 rebounds for the game). Wahab had 5 points and 0 rebounds, while Bradley Ezewiro had 5 points, 3 rebounds in 14 minutes.

The Hoyas lost the latter half 38-22, losing the points-in-the-paint battle 12-2 and making only 6 baskets (two threes) out of 28 attempts. Villanova wasn’t much better, shooting 12 of 26 in the half and making four of 15 three pointers, but it was enough to beat the Hoyas tonight. Cam Whitmore scored only 8 points, but Caleb Daniels scored 20 points and Mark Armstrong scored 14 points. Villanova didn’t miss a free throw but Georgetown was only 11-16.

As pointed out by Hoya Fan Favorite Jeff Goodman, Georgetown’s last regular season conference win came in March of 2021… are we having fun yet?

With an 0-5 start and another shot at Nova coming in less than two weeks, will Patrick Ewing still be the coach?