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Georgetown has hopefully found rock bottom, but I’m worried this is only the beginning.
Friday night in Jamaica, the Hoyas gave up a 10 point halftime lead in the opening six minutes of the second half on the way to being outscored 52-24 in the final 20 minutes.
The Hoyas were 38% from the field and 18% from three while being outrebounded by 12 against a West Coast Conference opponent. Georgetown made 8 shots from the field in the second half.
On the brightside, Georgetown was 19-20 from the free throw line. It’s extremely rare to shoot that efficiently from the line and yet the Hoyas still lost by 18.
In the first half, Georgetown looked great. They manufactured a 10 point lead without hitting a three pointer in the first half and introduced a 2-3 zone defensively for the first time.
The second half, however, was obviously an entirely different story.
Following the game, head coach Patrick Ewing seemed almost out of ideas.
“Maybe I need to cut down on some of our key guy’s minutes,” Ewing said. “We are playing Brandon [Murray] and Primo [Spears] significant minutes. We need to find a way to reduce their minutes so that they can be a lot more fresh in the second half.”
Spears had his lowest output so far this season, scoring 10 points, while Brandon Murray led all scorers in the game with 19.
Credit to Loyola Marymount. The Lions made nine three’s in the second half and came out scorching. The Hoyas did not or could not respond and LMU ran away with the game before Georgetown knew what hit them.
“In the second half they were able to make a significant amount more [three’s],” Ewing said. “I think that they hurt us in transition when we got back and weren’t matched up and then we just didn't do a good job at getting out to them at the three point line.”
The major knock to the Hoya defense so far this season has been the inability to defend the three point line. This team is not unique for this trait. Unfortunately, it seems to be a trend of Patrick Ewing-led teams at Georgetown.
The simple fact is that in the last two games for the Hoyas against increased competition in Northwestern and Loyola Marymount, they lost by a combined 30 points. I’d wager that neither Northwestern nor LMU would finish in the upper half of the Big East Conference.
I am officially worried. Georgetown takes on La Salle on Sunday at noon in their final Jamaica game. The Explorers just lost to Wake Forest and neither team wants to head back to the U.S. after going 0-2 at the Jamaica Classic.
The Hoyas did not respond to the opening loss of the year and now have lost two straight. Can’t afford for that to be three L’s in a row.