AD Report: Hoyas Send Retrieivers Home
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Georgetown Defeats UMBC 79-70
WASHINGTON – Jay Heath and Primo Spears combined for 45 points (25 and 20), 50.0% shooting (17-34), including a combined 8-for-10 from deep, to lift the Hoyas past the visiting UMBC Retrievers 79-70 at Capital One Arena on Saturday. With the win, the Hoyas improve to 4-3 on the season while the Retrievers slip to 3-4.
ON THE RECORD "I was pleased with the response we got. We gave them Thanksgiving off and some of them came to my house. They had Thanksgiving with me and my family. We had a great practice on Friday and we talked about the mistakes and the things that we didn't do well in the game before. We watched film, practiced hard and I thought that everybody was focused and locked in and I thought that showed today."- Head Coach Patrick Ewing on the teams preparation for the game
"The coaches and the team were telling me to be aggressive. Last game, the team didn't play as well as we wanted to, we just wanted to bounce back. We knew it was going to start with me and Primo [Spears] right here so we just wanted to start early, and not get ourselves in a hole." - Guard Jay Heath on today's game
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS Jay Heath led all scorers with 25 points, shooting 50.0% (9-18) from the floor, including a 5-for-6 performance from beyond the arc. He added four rebounds and three assists.Primo Spears tallied his fourth 20+ point game of the season, also shooting 50.0% (8-16) from the floor, including a trio of triples, to go along with a game-best six assists, six rebounds and two steals.
Qudus Wahab chipped in 10 points and a squad-best eight boards to go along with one assist and one steal.Georgetown shot 41.2% (28-68) for the game and 50.0% (11-22) from downtown while limiting UMBC to 33.8% shooting (23-68) and 32.3% (10-31) from beyond the arc.The Hoyas forced 10 turnovers and committed just six of its own. Despite being outrebounded 47-43, the Hoyas were able to convert 11 offensive rebounds to 18 second-chance points while UMBC had 15 offensive boards, converting those to just 10 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED UMBC jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and was hot from the floor to start. The Hoyas kept inching back but the Retrievers kept it at least a two-possession game through the first 10 minutes of play, leading by as many as eight (27-19, 10:47).A stepback 3 from Heath sparked a 7-1 run capped by buckets from Bryson Mozone and Spears to cut the deficit to two (28-26) with 8:59 remaining.
The first points of Bradley Ezewiro's Georgeotwn career would tie up the game at 32 while a Mozone triple gave the Hoyas their first lead of the game, 35-34 (5:03). Both teams traded buckets and the lead and went into the locker room tied at 42.
The Hoyas came out hot in the second half, scoring 16 unanswered and holding UMBC scoreless for 7:25 before a Retriever free throw broke up the run. The run was fueled by six apiece from Spears and Wahab.Despite a 7-0 run from UMBC to cut the lead to single digits, a Heath 3-pointer followed by a Mozone layup pushed the lead back to 14 (9:26).The lead would balloon to as many as 17 (71-54, 5:49) and a late surge from the Retrievers was not enough as the Hoyas went on to seal the 79-70 victory.
UP NEXT The Hoyas hit the road for a game at No. 21/20 Texas Tech on Wednesday, November 30. Tipoff at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and the game will be available on ESPN+. Fans can hear the radio call of Rich Chvotkin on 106.7 The Fan and Sirius XM 392.
