Almost But Not Enough

Despite suffering a Providence runs of 13-zip to start the game, 21-7 from beginning of second half to it's 11:21 mark, Georgetown still had chances to defeat the 21st ranked team nationally, Providence, in Rhode Island. They couldn't close the deal, falling 83-75 before 9100+ Dunkin Donuts Center fans.

"I thought my guys showed resilency in fighting back" admitted head coach Pat Ewing, during Georgetown's virtual postgame presser. Their first half comeback ended at three points down, the back stanza one terminated with G'Town four down late in the period.

Graduate guard Don Carey, having last seen game action December 18th - missing four games due to Georgetown being shut down by Covid for four games, an additional three being lost to his personal battle with the pandemic - returned to lead all scorers with 21 points. Add a game tying seven rebounds to his output, as well as contest tops four steals.

Ewing on Carey's work: "I thought he was great. Especially coming out of protocol. He's been shut down for 10 or 11 days. We had to take our time getting him back into shape, in basketball conditions. I thought he came out and played great".

Graduate forward Kaiden Rice came off the bench for 19 points. Normally a starter, Ewing indicated Rice being in a reserve role was "just something I wanted to see with my team". Freshman guard Aminu Mohammed also reached double figure scoring with 12 points.

For the Friars, senior forward Ed Croswell and graduate guard Aljami Durham both scored 15 points, with graduate forward Noah Horchler followed closely (14 points). Leading scorer, graduate pivot Nate Watson contributed 10 points.

Team stats were somewhat perplexing: Georgetown shot better from three point land than the floor overall (56.5% vs. 40%), the former besting Providence's 47.4%, the latter trailing it's 52.9% mark.

Ewing's guys won the battle of points off turnovers (20 to 12), bench points (29 to 26), fast break points (23-16), steals (10 to 5) and second chance points (14-8).

Despite the last stat, Providence managed a paint point win of 30-24, which Ewing specifically lamented.

Ed Cooley's guys also pulled down 33 rebounds to Georgetown's 32, doubled the Hoyas 20 to 10 in helpers ,tallied four times the blocks with a quartet The Friars had twice as many free throw attempts - 22 - than the visiting Hoyas.

Providence, now 15-2 on the season and 5-1 in the BIG EAST, hosts Butler this Sunday. Festivities begin noon EST.

Georgetown (6-9, 0-4) welcomes always dangerous Villanova to Capital One Arena, Saturday. Tip off is noon.