December 8, 2017 - Up 20 points with almost 12 minutes remaining, Georgetown looked poised to secure an easy victory over Howard last night. Somebody forgot to inform the Bison, who crawled back within five points around eight minutes later, before finally falling 81-67. After the Verizon Center tilt, witnessed live by over 4,500 patrons, Head Hoya Patrick Ewing was seemed to struggle with a reoccurring issue.
“I’m not even sure what I’m going to do in practice right now” said the first year head coach, when asked how he plans to address this newfound penchant for blowing leads – the Hoyas also let Coppin State diminish a second half, 14 point bulge to five earlier this week. “This is something I addressed last time we played”.
What did he tell his guys during the second half, Howard swoon? “We have to keep fighting. We’re in full battle”, and increasing the frustration was telling his team “for the last few days Howard was a quality team, we can’t take them lightly”. In Ewing’s estimation opting for “too many jumpshots” while not exploiting his squad’s frontcourt advantage helped Howard back into contention.
The game’s leading scorer, Howard sophomore guard Charles Williams, scored 18 of his 28 points in the second half, five during the Bison run.
Per Ewing, “We let Williams, I think it was get hot, and he got hot. He hit some big shots. We didn’t do a good job of guarding him on those pindown actions, and he made some big shots”.
Howard’s head coach, Kevin Nickleberry labeled Williams, who finished 11-18 from the field, “Probably one of the best midrange shooters I’ve coached”, and “Surprisingly they left him open a lot on the second half”.
The Bison shot 46.6% overall and 43.5% from three point land. Freshman guard R.J. Cole scored 17 points, while dishing out a game high eight assists. Cameron Lewis, a junior forward, finished with 11 points.
Helping answer Howard’s late charge was in part junior wing Kaleb Johnson, who logged two layups, a pair of defensive rebounds plus an assist during that time, all helping to stabilize his team and secure victory.
“I thought he did some things, especially when he went back in the second half that helped us” said Ewing of Johnson, who re-entered the game with seven and a half minutes to play. “That was a big play that he did when he drove the baseline and went underneath the basket and put it in. That was another big play he did when he ran the ball down in the corner down the other end, and got the rebound”.
Johnson, who finished with 18 points, eight rebounds, four helpers and a steal, also received some criticism from Ewing – “Sometimes the stat sheet is deceiving”- yet the coach ultimately indicated Johnson has been “playing well for us this year, not taking anything away from him. I guess I’m a perfectionist. He’s been working hard. If we’re going to be successful, he has to play better and continue to play better”.
Junior forward Marcus Derrickson contributed 16 points, nine rebounds, while classmate and pivot, Jessie Govan scored 24 points while leading all rebounders with 16 for G’Town, which shot 45.8% from the field and 36.4% on three pointers.
Govan on his play: “These guys are looking for me….Coach let him know if I’m open in the post, to throw it down to me. I was getting good position in their zone, finding the sweet spots in the zone so I can get my post looks off or easy shots and lay ups. And attacking the boards on offense and defense.
The 6’11” center ultimately believes withstanding a team’s run is good preparation for conference play, as “I think it helped, in having to execute, because the Big East is such a strong conference. When we get to those teams it’s going to be teams that make a run on us and we’re going to have to execute. Stay composed”.
Ewing made no mention of that, staying focused on stopping Georgetown’s new second half, lead-squandering trend.
“I’m going to go back and watch the film again…address them again tomorrow at the beginning of practice. But then we have to get ready for the next game”.
That contest is North Carolina A&T, a 230p, Capital One Arena contest that beckons tomorrow for Georgetown, now 7-0 on the year.
Howard, now 1-9, suits up at cross-town school American, also December 9th.
