January 13, 2020 - Having gone into intermission down just three, leading for around four minutes in the first half, head coach Pat Ewing and the Hoyas were in contention to defeat #16 nationally Villanova. Taking down the Wildcats would be a defining victory in Ewing’s tenure, now in its third year.

Alas, that was the plan, but not what happened: Five points from Saddiq Bey, two via Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, the Hoyas were then down 46-36 with 17:40 to play, yo-yo’ed between 14 and seven points behind before the final buzzer, eventually falling 80-66 at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center before greater than 15,000 fans, Saturday. .

Ewing admitted afterward “We came out flat. Two quick mistakes and a turnover…uphill fight from there”.

The Head Hoya didn’t think Villanova did anything different schematically from a defensive perspective during their decisive run. Interestingly enough neither did Wildcat head coach Jay Wright or his junior point guard Collin Gillespie, the latter summing “We just came out, wanted to get stops, focusing on defending and rebounding and take it to another level”. Wright did identify becoming comfortable with G’Town’s speed and attention to detail as reason’s for his team’s better second stanza, defensive play.

Georgetown's field goal percentage and three point shooting marks dipped during the last period, from 46.9% to 40.7% and 37.5% to 25%, respectively.

One player who was a force throughout was sophomore ‘Nova wing Bey, whose 33 points are a career high, dropping 19 of them in first half action. Two other Wildcats put up double figure scoring numbers in freshman forward Robinson – Earl (14 points, seven boards) and Gillespie (11 points, four rebounds, five assists). Wright praised Robinson-Earl’s defense on Hoya senior center Omer Yurtseven, the team’s leading scorer.

Speaking of Yurtseven, G’Town got little production from him or sophomore guard Mac McClung, the squad’s two main bucket-getters. This time the former produced just 10 points, seven rebounds, the latter eight points, five assists.

“If your two best players are not paying well, it’s going to be hard to beat a team like this” said Ewing. Specifically addressing a question regarding McClung’s shooting woes (3-15), he later answered “I don’t know…he got shots, he got touches. He just didn’t make them”.

Qudus Wahab, a freshman center, paced the Hoyas with 13 points, followed by junior wing Jamorko Pickett’s 12 points. Graduate transfer Terrell Allen joined Yurtseven with 10 points, adding a game best six assists.

Villanova (12-3, 3-1 and 3rd in the BIG EAST), which shot 47.4% overall, 51.7% from three point land, next plays DePaul Tuesday, an 830p EST start.

Standing 11-5, 1-3/9th, the Hoyas welcome surging Creighton to DC, Wednesday. Tip-off occurs 7p EST.