Georgetown Basketball: Hoyas will benefit from Duke loss in the longterm

Georgetown Basketball couldn’t hold a lead against Duke in the 2K Empire Classic. What should the Hoyas take away from this week?

Even after racing out to a 13 point lead, trouble was over the horizon for Georgetown Basketball. The Hoyas was on the bad end of whistle after whistle. This isn’t going to be a rant session about the officiating despite the first 20 minutes resembling Game 7 of the infamous Sacramento Kings-Los Angeles Lakers game.

Georgetown came to New York City with questions despite their 3-1 record. There were uninspiring wins over Mount St. Mary’s, Central Arkansas, and Georgia State. There was a home loss to Penn St. The loss to the Nittany Lions wasn’t just any loss. It was a home loss by 15 to a team that was picked to finish in the mid-to-lower part of the Big Ten.

After that loss, there were questions about head coach Patrick Ewing’s rotation, Mac McClung’s struggle on offense, and why were they so poor defensively.

But something clicked in the win over Texas. Ewing played nine players in the first half. A far cry from the 11 players he was playing in previous games. Perhaps we saw some benefit to Ewing playing so many players early on. When senior double-double machine, Omer Yurtseven got in foul trouble against the Longhorns, freshman big man Qudus Wahab stepped right in. Wahab didn’t put up the numbers that Yurtseven would’ve but he made plays in crucial times. Plays that helped Georgetown come back from a five-point deficit at the half.

We also saw McClung unleash in the Texas game. Ewing ran plays for him early and got him in the groove. The savvy sophomore rewarded him with a 19 point performance. One of four players that scored in double-digits in the 82-66 upset win over then 22nd ranked Texas.

And, that porous defense, well it looked really different in the second half of the Texas game. There’s something to stopping dribble penetration that preserves team defenses from breaking down. Go figure. After watching Texas shoot 50% in the first half, the Hoyas would hold Texas to 22% shooting in the second half. Certainly the last 20 minutes were a step in the direction.

All of the goodwill built from the Texas game wasn’t lost when the Hoyas came up short against Duke.

Despite some tough calls, the Hoyas had a double-digit lead in the first half and, at one point, held Duke to 4-16 from the floor. Not bad numbers. What would bedevil the Hoyas was their inability to keep Duke off the boards. Nine offensive rebounds led to eight 2nd chance points. That bought time until for the Blue Devils until their shooting got untracked.

And when it got untracked, it gave the Hoyas fits. Duke hit nine of their last 17 shots in the first half turning a half that Georgetown largely dominated into a 33-33 tie at halftime.

Duke’s hot shooting and rebounding continued in the second half. Eventually, the Blue Devils would go up by 14 with 4:59 left. Georgetown had ceased stopping dribble penetration and Cassius Stanley benefitted mightily. Stanley would shoot 6-9 (3-3 from the three-point line) in the second half. Just when it looks like it was over for the Hoyas, they showed who they were.

When things were the worst, they showed the most fight. Saddled with massive foul trouble and the number one team in the country in an incredible offensive groove, Georgetown fought back. The Hoyas would go on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to four with 42 seconds left. But it was too little too late.

Georgetown walked away with an eight-point loss but what they gain could carry them to new heights.