Hoyas Dump Dolphins of Le Moyne, 94-57, in Opening Win of ‘Cooley Era’

Your Georgetown Hoyas (1-0) beat the Le Moyne Dolphins (0-1), 94-57, to start the Ed Cooley Era off on the right foot. Jayden Epps, the transfer guard from Illinois, set the tone for this rout with 11 assists (5 points, 30 minutes), while Supreme Cook, the 6’9” senior transfer from Fairfield served up 19 points and 13 rebounds for what appears to be the first of many double-doubles. Dontrez Styles, who also had a double-double, scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half (10 rebs.). Rowan Brumbaugh (5-7, 3-5 3PT) and Jay Heath (6-12, 2-6 3PT) each contributed 15 points. Freshman big Drew Fielder looked solid in his debut and scored 11 points (4-10 FG, 1-6 3PT) in 19 minutes, despite being limited due to 4 fouls. Overall, the team looked disciplined and confident. The reported attendance was 9,335.

Cooley started Epps, Styles, Brumbaugh, Fielder, and Cook. Le Moyne, in their first game as Division I basketball, started Darrick Jones Jr., Kaiyem Cleary, Mike DePersia, Isaiah Salter, and Luke Sutherland. Georgetown wore the white jerseys with a “Tasha Tough” patch in tribute to the late coach of the women’s team.

The game started with promise for Hoyas fans, seeing a Fielder three-pointer off an Epps assist. After a bad pass by Styles and a three from Le Moyne’s Jones Jr., the Hoyas answered with an Epps jumper and didn’t look back. Revealing his effort level early, Cook had a block and a layup on the other end, on an assist from Fielder. The lead never felt in jeopardy.

Jay Heath and Wayne Bristol Jr. came in for Styles and Brumbaugh after 3 minutes. There’s no doubt the opening game was a little rusty for the first 9 minutes, with Georgetown leading 19-7 and each team having four turnovers. Le Moyne was only 3-16 FGs and 1-9 from three while the Hoyas were 8-17 FGs and 3-8 3PT. One bright spot was Dontrez Styles, the UNC transfer, who aggressively started 3-7 FG and 1-3 3PT for 7 of GU’s 19 points, with no one else having more than 3 points at this point. The GU lead expanded to 28-16 with 7 minutes left and 35-21 with 3:30 left. The Hoyas pulled away on a 12-2 run to finish the half up 47-23.

In the first half, overall, the Hoyas shot 18-32 (56%) from the field and 7-16 (44%) from three while the Dolphins were 10-36 (28%) in field goals and 3-19 (16%) from the perimeter. Styles led the half with 13 points (5-9, 2-4 3PT) and Epps had 5 points and a whopping 6 assists in 17 minutes (2-4, 0-1 3PT). Fielder, Cook and Brumbaugh also had five points in the half, while Heath scored 9 points (3-5, 2-3 3PT).

Georgetown had 10 players touch the floor, with Ryan Mutombo, Cameron Bacote, and Donovan Grant (1-2, only threes in 6 minutes) also getting minutes. The Hoyas had 11 assists and 7 turnovers, while Le Moyne had 7 assists and 5 giveaways. Georgetown led the rebound battle 25-17 overall but the Dolphins let on the offensive boards 7-5 at halftime.

To start the second half, Le Moyne turned Georgetown over three times in the first 1:29. The referees checked the tape on a Epps drive after a little extra physicality and Epps was hit with the technical foul for a fourth TO in the half—three of them attributed to Epps. Salter, a former 82% free-throw shooter, missed the foul shots. Epps got called on an offensive push for his second foul and fourth turnover before Cooley substituted Heath, who immediately gave a great look to Brumbaugh for three. Fielder, however, picked up a fourth foul with only 16:50 left in the game. The Hoyas led 50-25.

The Dolphins continued to struggle and missed six field goals in a row, while the Hoyas made 5 of their last 6 to make the score 59-30 with 13:38 left. Epps and Cook hooked up on a nice pick and roll and there were only two assists for each team thus far during the latter half. Epps drove and fed Cook for a second dunk. Moments later, Epps drove and dropped another off to Supreme Cook. Cook had a double-double already with 11 points and 16 points (8-9 FGs overall, 19 points and 13 rebounds in the game). Epps had 10 assists at this point (11 assets total). GU was up 68-35 with 11 minutes left.

In the second half, after the initial ugly few minutes, Georgetown settled down and was able to run their offense. While there was plenty of guards weaving at the top of the key, there were plenty of pick-and-rolls that led to low-post dishes. Generally, the ball moved well and the team looked unselfish—often with the athletic Styles as the recipient, who set career highs with points and rebounds tonight. Defensively, Georgetown likely got away with a fair amount of mediocrity based on their athleticism and Le Moyne’s need to attempt threes to get back in the game.

Supreme Cook looked dominant in the game, especially on the glass. His follow-up dunk with 9 minutes left led the commentators to say he looked comfortable in the Georgetown jersey before remembering that the Fairfield transfer likely saw a fair amount of competition at Le Moyne’s level. Mutombo came in and Bacote fed him for a pick-and-roll layup and a blocking call. At the under-8 media timeout, the Hoyas led 75-40. Le Moyne scored 4 of 5 FGs, capped with a open Cleary three off of a Styles turnover, before Cooley angrily called a 30-sec timeout that rolled into the media timeout. Georgetown only led 77-49 with 5:35 left.

Georgetown spread the offense and Fielder missed an alley-oop while getting fouled. He made the free throws with a form looking a bit better than his 1-6 perimeter shooting indicated. Fielder also capitalized on a Heath breakaway off-the-backboard alley-oop. Up 30 points, the dunk was only excused as a way to thank the fans for showing up to game 1 after several miserable seasons. Still, Cleary drove by Fielder on the next play for a two-handed dunk, using instant-karma to expose the vast amount of work the freshman big needs to do ahead of the conference season.

Donovan Grant and Austin Montgomery each got two minutes in the second half. Le Moyne missed their last 5 shots in 2 minutes as the Hoyas made their last 7 attempts. Bristol hit a three and Bacote scored 4 quick points. Georgetown pulled to a 94-57 win.

In the second half, there were only 5 turnovers after Epps pulled himself together and Le Moyne only had 6 giveaways in the half. Georgetown shot 19-32 (59%) in the half from the field and was 3-11 (27%) from the perimeter. The Dolphins were 4-12 3PT and 11-29 (38%) overall. The Hoyas outscored Le Moyne 47-34 in the half overall.

Neither team shot from the charity stripe well in the half with GU shooting 6-13 FTs and Le Moyne 8-14 FTs. Cook shot 3-7 in foul shots for the game (62% throughout his college career). The Hoyas outrebounded LeMoyne 27-12 in the half and 52-29 for the game. Le Moyne shot 7-31 (23%) from three and 21-65 (32%) overall.

Other interesting game stats included Georgetown winning the points-in-the-paint battle 50-22 and fast-break point comparison 24-10. Le Moyne outscored GU on points off turnovers 17-15 with the Hoyas turning it over 17 times total. Georgetown had 31 bench points to the Dolphins’ 18 points off the bench. The Hoyas had 23 assists on 37 baskets and Le Moyne had 11 assists on 21 buckets.

Next up for Ed Cooley the Hoyas is hosting Holy Cross for an 8PM Saturday night game (FS2).