Hoyas were a couple turnovers away from a top-10 road win
Your Georgetown Hoyas came excruciatingly close to snagging the upset on the road against the #7 Marquette Golden Eagles, ultimately falling short by a score of 74-66. Malik Mack led the Hoyas with 18 points and 5 assists, while Thomas Sorber had a casual 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Micah Peavy and Curtis Williams Jr. were both in double figures as well, dropping 13 and 10 points respectively.
After gutting out a 6-point win over Xavier this past weekend behind a huge game for Mack, the Hoyas had improved to 3-0 in the BIG EAST and were riding a 5 game winning streak. Marquette is not ranked top 10 in the country for nothing, also undefeated in conference and coming off victories over Creighton and Providence. Georgetown was without Jayden Epps with a “lower body” injury once again, giving that ankle time to heal after he saw limited minutes in the most recent outing.
Thomas Sorber found Mack early to open the scoring, the only field goal from either team on the first half-dozen possessions in fast-paced opening minutes. Marquette hit a pair from the line and got a bucket from Jones, which was answered by a triple from Mack. A basket plus the foul for the Golden Eagles saw the home team leading the Hoyas 8-5 at the first media break.
Micah Peavy couldn’t finish a driving layup and then Mack (lightly) fouled Norman beyond the arc, though the Golden Eagle did not complete the four-point play. Good defense by the Hoyas prevented a bigger gap from opening until Sorber got going with the and-1 a few possessions later. Jones and Peavy traded baskets while the teams battled for every inch in trying to execute their offensive schemes.
Georgetown caught a slight break when Norman got called for a technical, then Marquette immediately turned the ball over off the inbounds, and Sorber put the finish on a Jordan Burks miss. The Hoyas took the lead, 16-15, thanks to a smooth Burks transition three off a good vision feed from Peavy. Burks hit again from long range on the next trip but was whistled for a T of his own for offering commentary to the Golden Eagles bench.
Curtis Williams Jr. extended the Hoyas advantage with an up & under basket, and Peavy added two more after a miscues from Joplin returned possession to Georgetown. It was 23-18, Hoyas on top at the U8. A pair more freethrows, a rattled-in fallaway jumper, and a breakaway dunk all for Peavy made it a 21-3 Georgetown run. Mack added another jumper to keep it rolling.
After years of struggling against mid-major non-conference opponents, these Hoyas had run up a double-digit lead on the #7 team in the country, 31-18 with less than 6 minutes to play in the first half. When Burks soared in for the putback off a three-point miss to extend the lead further, rumor has it that Jack the Bulldog may have temporarily started levitating.
Jones hit a triple to try to stop the bleeding for Marquette and Coach Cooley called for a quick timeout before the momentum could build. A miss from Mack, a turnover, and a bumbled attempted pass from Sorber to Fielder allowed the Golden Eagles to inch back in, but Williams Jr. dropped an off-balance three as the shot clock buzzer sounded. Ultimately, Georgetown took a 38-29 advantage into the intermission.
Ross opened the scoring in the second period with a triple, capitalizing on insufficient transition defense from the Hoyas. A blown rotation in coverage forced Sorber to take a foul to prevent an easy bucket, however Mitchell hit both and pulled the Golden Eagles to within four. A steal and dunk from Ross further cut into the lead. Mack finally scored for Georgetown, but unfortunately Ross hit again from behind the arc and pulled Marquette to within a single point — 40-39 — at the under-16.
Sorber drew a foul on the offensive end, hitting both, then gave it right back by committing a foul on defense. It was all tied up at 42, then the Golden Eagles pulled ahead with a shot that hit all parts of the rim before rattling through.
Mack immediately answered with a triple of its own, a play which CBS didn’t deign to show on-air. Strong defense from Caleb Williams forced a turnover, and aggressive offensive rebounding by both he and Fielder yielded an and-1 for the Idahoan to put the Hoyas back on top by one at 12:21.
The pendulum was swinging hard in Marquette’s direction, suddenly getting open looks that they couldn’t manage against the zone earlier in the game and applying strangling defense. They were also getting a break as the officiating crew was largely swallowing their whistles while Sorber was getting worked over under double coverage in the paint.
There were multiple lead changes as we saw a triple from Williams Jr. and baskets from Mitchell and Mack, before Ross tied it up 58-58 with 7:38 left to play. Pressure by the Hoyas forced a turnover, but they came up empty again. Sorber picked up his fourth foul on a questionable call as he reached for a defensive rebound and was immediately recalled to the bench.
The freshman’s break was short-lived, as Thomnas re-entered less than 90 seconds later to play the offensive possession. Sorber drew the foul, sunk his foul shots, and subbed back out. It was 60-60 with 4:26 on the clock.
The subsequent defensive stop that Sorber got with the block against Gold — let me repeat for emphasis that he is a freshman playing with foul fouls — set up the Hoyas’ offense for Fielder to hit a three from the corner. 63-62 Hoyas with 3:15 remaining. Another block from Sorber, but Georgetown couldn’t convert going the other direction.
Williams was whistled for the foul and Ross made both, flip-flopping the 1-point advantage back toward the Golden Eagles. Peavy was fouled and made the back end, tying it up briefly until Mitchell hit a driving layup off a clean feed from Jones. With 1:35 to go, Georgetown trailed 66-64.
Mack got whistled for a foul as he mishandled the ball under pressure while bringing it up the court; Ross hit both to widen the gulf with 46 seconds left. Fielder was called for a moving screen while Mack was pulling up for a three; the forfeited scoring opportunity combined with the forced change in possession was decisive. You could see the recognition and resignation on Mack’s face — he knew that was it.
This was a very close game against a very good team, with Georgetown short their leading scorer. The Hoyas had some early foul trouble and gave up 9 steals in the first half, but their defense in the paint was so effective that it neutralized what should and would otherwise have been an early fatal flaw in their execution. Marquette committed a uncharacteristic number of turnovers in opening half but locked it down after halftime, as great teams can & will do.
Last season, the Hoyas lost to the Golden Eagles twice by 30 or more points. This year’s young squad cut that margin way down. They are for real and they are a threat. The program finally feels like it is trending in the proper direction and I’m excited to be excited about Georgetown basketball again.
Next up, the Hoyas return home to host UCONN for a 2pm tip from Capital One, airing on FOX.
We are Georgetown. Hoya Saxa.