Below are anecdotes and observations, relative to Georgetown's thrilling 88-83 win over upsart American, Sunday.

For more, including postgame pressers and quotes, click here.

The chat thread is here.

This Battle for NW, Washington, DC supremacy could have swung either way, with Georgetown racing back from an eleven point deficit with over six minutes remaining, before pushing the game to overtime, eventually winning 88-83 over visiting American. There was a thin line between victory and defeat, witnessed by a stated crowd of 4,755 patrons.

Leading the charge offensively was sophomore guard Jayden Epps, eventual contributor of a game best 31 points, while adding four assists in over 40 minutes of play.

His work in a nutshell: Epps, in his first year on The Hilltop, dropped the final 14 Hoya points in regulation, including four three pointers, the last coming with just five seconds to play, the Hoyas down a trio of points. On an BLOB (base line out of bounds) play, Epps shook free;, catching the ball beyond the arc and letting it fly.

Down three points, was American's plan to foul Epps before the shot went up?

"We did want to foul" admitted new AU head coach, Duane Simpkins afterward. "He got loose. We were in a little bit of a zone, probably should have been in man in that situation and and switched everything".

That is what Ed Cooley', also in a first year coaching assignment, said his Hoya staff presumed too. "So they were trying to foul, and we knew that" he recalled, "But Supreme's (Cook, 10p, 4r, 2s) screen caused the right separation not to have, not to have, not to have, a body next to him".

Doing so was not novel, as "That's something that we practice all the time, our late game situations...at the end of practice and our preparation'.

A quartet of points were supplied by junior wing Dontez Styles (22p, game best 11 rebounds), sophomore guard Rowan Brumbaugh (13p, 4r, 4a) and Cook, in overtime. For the contest, the Hoyas shot 49.2% from the field, 35.7% on three pointers.

Simpkins received double figure scoring from a foursome, starting with senior forward Matt Rogers' 17 points. He also paced the Eagles with nine caroms. Following Rogers' scoring output were 12 points from senior guard/forward Lincoln Ball, Geoff Sprourse a sophomore guard, plus his class and position mate, Elijah Stephens, the latter also this contest's top dimer at nine assists.

Simpkins' guys went 46.8% overall shooting, made a third of their three balls (9-27). They are credited with winning the fastbreak (26-12) and bench (27-10) points battles. Look for American, now 2-3, next grappling with Mount St. Mary's, November 22nd, a 430p EST tip.

Though salting away the victory, Cooley's crew, now 2-2, prevailed in few statistical categories outside of end score, though G'Town's 49.2% overall, 35.7 sinking three pointers bested AU's work.

Cooley saw beauty in this gritty win: "With our men, i thought it was a resilient win. it's one of the first times we've won here, with respect to instilling a culture of resilience. Of togetherness. Of unselfishness. Of complete buy in and trust to what we as a staff are trying to instill in our men".

As noted above, Jayden Epps was Man of the Game, leading all scorers with 31 points, 14 of which stand as Georgetown's last points in regulation. He also shot well - 50% from the floor (11-22), 6-13 or 46% on long balls, 3-3 from the charity stripe.

He was clearly on fire.

"Like you said, in the moment i had it going" admitted Epps, a first year transfer from Illinois that shot 13 times in the last 20 minutes, making seven, including 5-9 three balls. The Hoyas clearly were feeding him, confirmed by Epps, as "That's what Coach tells us all the time; whoeve's cooking, whoever's got it going, he's going to come to y0u.

"So I had it cooking. My teammates were finding me, my teammates were trusting me, and he just found me open shots...That's how Coach is. it could have been anybody cooking, He's going to keep coming to you'. .

American's Simpkins lamented the outcome and felt essentially, the Hoyas were let off the proverbial hook. He did joke regarding the Hoyas' leading scorer "Wish we could have put Epps in a box and keep him off the court".

One thing's for certain, two things for sure,; the Hoyas' ball security was better than their last two games, where 41 total turnovers were given away. This game's 11 cough up mark actually bested AU's by three, also standing as it's second least tally of early '23-24.

Cooley was sure to comment: "I thought we got a little big better on it. we did. There were a few costly turnovers, but i don't think it cost us the game verus the last couple of game where it was a hot potato".

More from Cooley regarding ball security includes how they prepare - "We watch a lot of film" - and not expecting the issue to vanish - "It's going to be an issue we are going to have to deal with all year; getting our guys confident to advance the ball. We have to advance the ball against pressure".

In his mind, "We have to move it, attack, move it. Anytime a team presses you, you have two on the ball. So behind the ball...we have an advantage. If two come to the ball it's a four on three advantage somewhere on the floor".

He didn't spare himself or coaches from criticism, as "We have to do a better job coaching them recognizing where those bodies are, where they belong on the floor".

American certainly appli3ed pressure - Diamond, 1-2-2, 94 foot pick up -- while also changing back end schemes, toggling between various man deployments and zone sets, with good success.

Epps faced much of the attention.

"Ah yeah, we scouted them, knew they were going to pressure us, we've kind of been a hot turnover team lately, (We're) trying to get that down" shared Epps. "So Coach told us they were going to try and pressure us and stuff like that. And at the beginning were were playing on our heels. Me and Rowan and the guards are going to go back to the drawing board and are going to fix that.

"We were playing on our heels. As we built confidence as the game went on, we started playing downhill with it".

Simpkins confirmed "that was the thought process, to keep them off kilter a little bit", and switching defenses is improving for the Eagles, with doing so being "part of our DNA". He celebrated both Styles and Epps, leading his staff to conclude "we had to do something to keep them off balance and hope we could guard the last 12 seconds or so in the shot clock".

Simpkins also was irked that Georgetown's late pressure produced trouble for his team, late.