Again, Hoyas take the L

December 20, 2015 - For the first time this season Georgetown fell in consecutive home games yesterday. It also marked the third time in 2015-2016 John Thompson III's team, a member of the fabled BIG EAST Conference has lost to a mid-major program, this time a 79-73 defeat at the hands of UNC-Asheville.

"We're in a bad place right now and we have to pull ourselves out of it" said an obviously unsettled Thompson afterward, when asked if his team's slow start yesterday doomed it in similar fashion to last Tuesday's home loss to Monmouth. "Are the two related? I'm not sure, but I think that we have to pull ourselves out of it and I think everyone in that locker room understands that".

The Hoyas shot a decent clip from the field - 45.6%, but clanked horribly from beyond the arc, managing 18.2% (2-11) in both halves (4-22 total). Key in that futility was senior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera; the Hoyas' leading scorer finished with seven points and four assists on 2-10 shooting, including a 1-8 three ball rate.

Thompson shared of Smith-Rivera's troubles "I still will say what I said several games ago. I'm not worried about D'Vauntes's shot. He has to take the right shots at the right times and when he does that he makes more than he misses".

Inside scoring was better, the Hoyas scored 42 points around the rim, but senior center Bradley Hayes only had nine attempts, making four, despite owning a huge size advantage over Asheville's front line.

"I think everybody would want to see the ball a lot more, but that just comes with being a basketball player" noted Hayes, who finished with 11 points and a game high 18 rebounds, when asked if not getting a lot of touches frustrated him. "I have complete confidence in all my teammates and the shots they took are good shots, so I'm not upset at them for taking the shots that they took and it's like Coach Thompson said, we have to go back and talk to some of the younger guys and tell them in certain situations when not to shoot and when to shoot".

Two guys that did get shots were sophomore Bulldog Kevin Vannatta along with freshmen Dwayne Sutton and Dylan Smith: Vannatta scored 14 points while Sutton had 17 points (5-6) and Smith came off the bench for a game high 19 points, propelled by his 5-7 mark from three point land.

Vannatta, who finished 5-10 overall shared "I just was told to keep shooting with confidence and if you miss a few, that's going to happen - everybody misses a few. Just kept playing the game and took what they gave us - the whole team really was playing well; we were working really well together". His layup with 7:25 remaining in regulation propelled Asheville to an eight point lead, as did the jumper of sophomore swingman Ahmad Thomas (12 points, 10 rebounds) less than a minute and a half later.

Isaac Copeland (12 points), a G'Town sophomore forward, answered that with a dunk. Soon thereafter Smith-Rivera canned a three ball, bringing Georgetown to within three. The teams remained differentiated by a possession or two score-wise, G'Town eventually whittling it to one after a charity stripe make from sophomore guard L.J. Peak (10 points), with just a minute and thirty four seconds left.

The Hoyas were then outscored 7-2 to close the contest, going 1-6 during that stretch, including two missed three pointers by Smith-Rivera, Peak not connecting on a three ball and jumper, plus Hayes' clanging on a layup.

"We have to go back and evaluate, reevaluate, reanalyze a lot of different things" said Thompson. "I still believe in this group, but we just have to get ourselves out of this hole we're in right now. You want to say, great, there is a lot of season left for that to happen and so we just have to fight".

Tuesday brings another chance to show that improvement, against yet another mid-major foe; Georgetown (6-5) travels to A-10 Conference member UNC-Charlotte for a noon EST start.

UNC-Asheville (7-4) welcomes Elon on Monday. That contest is a 7p EST tip-off.