The Hoyas, though never leading and enjoying just 57 seconds of a tie ball game, had chances at Seton Hall last night. Yet in the end, HC Ed Cooley's group fell 76-70 to Seton Hall, before, 9,422 Prudential Center fans in Newark, NJ.

Examples of those opportunities:

- Down 38-33 at intermission, the Hoyas got within three points before the second half's first media timeout, after senior guard Jay Heath's three ball. Seton Hall extinguished the momentum with a subsequent eight-zip run.

- Over greater than the next seven and a half minutes, Seton Hall's then 11 point lead was again chipped to three, this time after junior center Supreme Cook's dunk. And again The Hall answered, three times running their lead to 11. G'Town only got as close as five afterward.

Leading the Hoyas in scoring were two juniors - forward Dontrez Styles and Supreme Cook - both dropping 20 points, the latter's season high. Styles shot an impressive 4-8 from three point land, including three in the first 20 minutes. Cook went 7-13 from the field, but just 4-10 from the charity stripe.

"I think Sha's guys did a really good job of responding" said Cooley of Seton Hall and it's coach, Shaheen Holloway, like him in the first year of a new coaching gig. "I think every time we went on a run they answered".

Cook also paced all rebounders with 11, Styles adding seven. The Hoyas lost the rebounding battle 44-40, though pulled down five more offensive rebounds (18-13).

Cooley's guys went 36% from the field, an anemic 25% on three pointers. Their 40 threes was the largest such mark in 13 years, per the Fox broadcast.

Missing was the typical performance of sophomore guard Jayden Epps. Though he was around three points under his season average, scoring 15 points and led the team with seven helpers, Epps shot 6-19 overall, 3-13 on long balls. He spent much of the first half playing off ball, a different deployment.

Seton Hall, coached by school alum Holloway, saw junior wing Dre Davis outpace all scorers at 25 points, his team in rebounding {10r). Senior point guard Kadary Richmond accounted for 20 points, a game high eight assists, plus seven boards. The Pirates last double figure scoring guy, senior guard Al-Amir Dawes, logged 11 points.

As a unit, which is now 15-8 overall, 8-4/third in the BIG EAST, Seton Hall shot 43%/32%, while being impacted at times by a Georgetown 2-3 match up zone,. Their next foe is Villanova, on the road this Sunday, 2.11.24. Tip-off is 12p EST.

Cooley's Georgetown Hoyas get no breaks in search of another league win (8-14, 1-10/10th), with UConn, tops in the BIG EAST and nationally, the returning national champion, rolling into DC this Saturday the 10th, a noon EST start.

How does Cooley, who valued his team's ability to battle against Seton Hall, view this challenging season?

"it's been an interesting year. It's been a frustrating year at some points" started Cooley, who pivoted to the positive, admitting pride "in our guys' effort, attitude". The antidote going forward is "We're going to continue to battle, continue to fight and build this program".