February 21, 2019 - A stated crowd of 11,624 Capital One Arena patrons tonight saw head coach Pat Ewing secure his first victory over a Top 25 ranked college team, as Georgetown sent 16/17 ranked and previously BIG EAST Conference leading Villanova back to greater Philadelphia with an 85-73 loss.

The milestone position wasn’t lost on Ewing.

“My son brought that to my attention by the way” joked Ewing afterward, when asked about finally taking down a ranked team as a second year Hoya head coach. “It was a great win”. After referencing his team’s 77-65 setback at Villanova this month, Ewing noted “Today, I thought we were the better team”.

His Villanova counterpart, Jay Wright, agreed, summing the contest “A really, really strong performance by Georgetown…You have to give Georgetown credit for making the plays. They made a lot of good plays”.

In first half action, offensively, that was Mac McClung. A 6’2”, freshman guard, McClung, dropped 17 of his 21 points on 6-12 overall shooting. Add five rebounds, four assists and one steal to his game total.

Ewing indicated McClung “started out the game extremely hot, extremely well, making his shots, driving”. The frosh from Gate City, Virginia admitted such, saying “We were just running and moving the ball around. It just happened to come to me a couple of times” a reference to a three ball, followed by his and-one shot just thirteen seconds later.

Wright is impressed with what McClung can provide: “We knew he was much better than how he played us the first time (four points)….A guy like that is a born scorer. Once he gets it going, he’s hard to stop”.

Adding to that, Wright opined ““He just has a great scorer’s mentality. He can score a number of ways…off the dribble, catch and shot, at the rim, mid-range, has floaters. He just has a great package, offensively”.

If McClung moved the needle in first half action, senior forward Jessie Govan did so the last 20 minutes; after scoring no points in the teams’ previous matchup, Govan logged 21 points – 15 in the second half- and a game best 11 rebounds, Wednesday night.

“Last time we played them they held me scoreless. Definitely had a chip on my shoulder” admitted Govan. “Wanted to bounce back from that game, make an impact on this game. I had to do that on the offensive glass…they ran a lot of pick and roll, so really concentrated on pick and roll coverage today

“I think I was just staying aggressive, attacking the glass…I just tried to be the cleanup guy” for teammates.

Eric Paschall, a senior ‘Nova forward was not shocked, as he believes Govan “can do a lot”, including “shoot, he drives the ball when you try and take away his jumper. He has great touch around the rim. Jessie is a great player. He does a lot for his team, and you saw it in the second half”.

Paschall finished with 16 points for Villanova, while senior guard Phil Booth led all scorers via 26 points. Sophomore guard Collin Gillespie logged 13 points for the Wildcats, who finished shooting 38.5% overall, 23.7% on three pointers (20.8% in the second half). Wright’s guys, paced in rebounding by freshman wing Saddiq Bey’s 11 caroms secured, trailed by 10 points at intermission, 19 with 4:01 remaining.

'Nova, now 20-7 overall, 11-3 and falling twice consecutively, currently stands second in the league and must travel to Xavier on Sunday, where they tip at 130p EST.

Georgetown enjoyed 10 points and a game high 11 assists from freshman James Akinjo, who had just three turnovers in a team high 31 minutes, 54 seconds. As a unit, the Hoyas shot 50% from the field, 39.3% beyond the arc.

Joining his coach in the achievement zone was Govan, who for the first time at G’Town defeated Villanova. That’s nine games stretching back to 2016.

“It was the last team I haven’t beaten in the BIG EAST” said the center. “It feels good to check them off the list”.

Up next for Georgetown is ever-dangerous Creighton, a road game set for 230p EST, Saturday. Now 16-10 on the season, 6-7 and fifth in the BIG EAST after having just lost two straight, can the Hoyas use this key win as a springboard going forward?

Ewing believes so, with a qualifier: “We have to build on this. It can’t be just a one game thing. We have five more games to go, and our dreams, our goal is to make the NCAA Tournament. And we have to build on this…show how much we have grown. Can’t be happy with it”.