Leaders Forge Ahead for Butler V

When a team is scrambling for victory, in need of a reaffirming win, many times multiple players lead to way in doing so. Yesterday's 68-62 Georgetown win at Butler followed suit with both - the Hoyas added another league win (2-35) picking up their first BIG EAST road win since winning the conference tournament in 2020. They also won with broad based impact.

Just ask Pat Ewing, their head coach, who when queried responded "To a man, everybody did some positive things to be able to come away with the win". No where was that more evident than among Ewing's top four scorers. Examples are:

1) Sophomore guard Brandon Murray scored a team best 17 points, plus six rebounds for G'Town.

2) Though he contributed less than half his per game average with seven points, sophomore guard Primo led the Hoyas and tied for game high assists honors with four. He also tallied just a singular turnover and shared best stealer honors via four swipes forced.

3) Junior guard Jay Heath dropped 12 points, 10 in the crucial second half, and seven caroms secured.

4) Qudus Wahab, a senior pivot, logged 14 points, around four above his season average, while pulling down a game best tying eight caroms, including four offensive which no player matched.

Reserves got into the action also, like Bryson Mozone. A grad school forward transfer, Mozone scored not only seven points, but met Wahab's rebounding output of eight.

These widespread contributions were coupled with defense in creating the outcome.

"I thought defensively, they did a great job defensively...six threes at one point in the second half, and they (Butler) only ended up with one in the second half" recalled Ewing. "That's where the game was, right there.

Nowhere was this as noticeable than with Butler's Jayden Taylor: A sophomore guard, Taylor logged 17 points on 6-8 overall shooting and 3-4 beyond the arc during the first 20 minutes. During the last 20, he went 1-7/0-4 for four points, with three fouls.

"We locked in" explained Ewing in terms of how his team throttled the game's top scorer who was super hot early. "He got wide open shots in the first half. He made us pay for the mistakes we were making on his staggers. We were supposed to switch on some of them. We didn't communicate and he got wide open".

For the contest, Ewing's guys shot 39% overall, 33% on three balls, battling back from deficits of 13 in the first half, five at intermission, seven during the last 20 minutes, eventually taking the lead for good with just over five minutes to play.

Butler managed 42%/27%, though during the back half only went 38%/8%.

Generally "i thought that we, for the most part, we fought" summed Ewing. "We made mistakes in the first half. I got on them at halftime. They (his team) came back...stayed focused. Didn't get in their feelings. They came back and played in the second half".

A pair of HC Thad Matta's Butler Bulldogs ended up in double figure scoring, in Ali Ali and Simas Lukosius. Senior and Sophomore wings, respectively, Ali and Lukosius both dropped 11 points.

Grad guard Eric Hunter led Butler in rebounding with eight, Taylor pulled down seven. Winning the rebounding battle 45-29 was "very important", per Ewing, and went a long way towards securing the win.

The coach was sanguine regarding it, despite Butler not having it's chief paint player Manny Bates, as "some of our key guys as well" didn't suit up the last time these teams competed, an 80-51, 1.1.23 Butler win, 'so it's all about getting it done with the people you have on the floor".

The loss drops Butler to 13-15 for the season, 5-12/9th in the BIG EAST. Matta et al next take on DePaul on the road. Tip off is 830p EST.

Georgetown, now 7-21, 2-15 and 11th in the conference, also take the floor Wednesday, when St. John's comes to DC. The start is a rare 9p EST.

Could having lost so many games, so closely, actually aid the Hoyas now?

"I think it definitely helps" opined a hopeful Ewing. "It hurts when you lose them, don't get me wrong. We've been in so many close games. We knew it was going to be a close game today.

"Our guys, they stayed focused. They executed..both offensively and defensively. And we were able to get stops when we needed to".