Against a nationally ranked opponent, missing its leading scorer — and with his backup going down with an apparent first-half knee injury— the Georgetown University men’s basketball team was in it until the final buzzer.
But yet again, the Hoyas came up just short.
Georgetown (13-17, 5-14 Big East) had the effort, heart and grit, but the little things and 50-50 chances were not with them as No. 18 St. John’s University (24-6, 17-2 Big East) came back in the final minutes to win 72-69 at Madison Square Garden on March 3.
The Red Storm took the opening tip and scored off a Bryce Hopkins free throw on that possession to open the scoring. However, from there, the Hoyas had a response for everything St. John’s tried.
Graduate guard Jeremiah Williams, in for the injured junior guard KJ Lewis, found sophomore center Julius Halaifonua after a looping drive to take a 2-1 lead.
Williams, after finding that assist, quickly took control of the offense. He scored 7 points before the under-16 timeout, giving Georgetown an 11-10 lead. The Hoyas slowly built up that lead, shooting at a more efficient clip than the home team. Williams’ dominance continued: in the first half, he led the team with 11 points.
But in the final minute, Williams fell awkwardly. His knee appeared to hyperextend, and Williams required help from two coaches to walk to the locker room.
Jeremiah Williams fell hard and required help to get to the locker room, but soon returned to the game despite the injury. (Matthew Gassoso)
At halftime, the Hoyas held a firm 34-26 lead and had the opportunity to secure an elusive upset to salvage what has so far been a disappointing conference season. Despite their lead, the Hoyas couldn’t quite pull away from the Red Storm. Even with poor shooting, St. John’s continued to outrebound the Hoyas and converted many of those offensive rebounds into second-chance points.
The highlight moment for St. John’s, and for superstar center Zuby Ejiofor in a monster senior day performance, was a dominating slam-dunk, which prompted Georgetown Head Coach Ed Cooley to call a timeout and appear to start yelling at Ejiofor.
In his final regular-season game, the center was the dominating force for the Red Storm. He recorded 23 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. After the game, Cooley said Ejiofor had secured his vote for the Big East postseason honors.
“Zuby — he was really a difference maker,” Cooley said in the postgame press conference. “He’s gonna get my vote for player of the year and defensive player of the year.”
“I’m glad Zuby’s graduating. Thank God, get him the hell out of here,” he added.
The poor effort from St. John’s continued for much of the early second half, and Georgetown held a 41-32 lead at the under-16 timeout. Soon after, Williams, who had needed help less than an hour before to stand and walk, checked back into the game. Williams finished with 17 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
Sophomore guard Kayvaun Mulready saw more action in the second guard spot, too. Mulready led the team in scoring with 20 points, and also added 2 assists and 7 rebounds.
From there, at a peak Georgetown lead of 48-36 with just over 14 minutes to play, the Red Storm reclaimed the momentum. The Hoyas never reclaimed it.
First, St. John’s grabbed an and-1 on a questionable continuation call. Then, Cooley called a timeout to have officials review a slam dunk that he believed to be goaltending — but his pleas did not result in a replay, and the Red Storm cut the lead to 50-45. From those two lucky 50-50 calls, the Red Storm ignited the Garden and were firmly back in the game. Further helping their cause, they outrebounded the Hoyas 40-34, including 15 offensive rebounds that became 17 second-chance points.
By the under-8 timeout, St. John’s cut the lead to 55-53, but the 14,319-strong crowd was behind the Red Storm, who could not be stopped. Halaifonua’s fourth foul put Hopkins back at the line, and he drained both free throws to tie the game at 57.
The next possessions formed a narrow Red Storm lead, and for the final 6 minutes, the Hoyas fought to climb back from a 2-possession deficit. It came down to the final possession. Williams, the do-it-all guard, was fouled on his made layup but missed the and-1 to tie the game. The Hoyas were forced to foul, and sophomore forward Caleb Williams got the ball with the clock expiring, but missed his 3-pointer attempt to send the game to overtime.
Cooley opened his press conference frustrated with the team’s seventh consecutive loss and said his team was being underestimated because of their poor record.
“We have not had the record we wanted,” Cooley said. “We’ve been incredibly competitive, and it’s been frustrating because we’re losing the same way in a lot of different games. And, at times, I feel we’re not respected because of the record. You can look into that and read into that whatever you want, but I feel there’s definitely a lack of respect because of the record of Georgetown.”
During the losing streak and the season at large, the Hoyas have struggled to maintain leads coming out of the locker room. The game, despite its hard-fought nature, marked another blown halftime lead for the Hoyas, and Cooley said he deserved the blame for that.
“Zero excuses — it’s on me,” Cooley said. “We got to find a way to win close games, which has been a mantra of ours that we want close games, and I’ve been fortunate to coach a lot of close wins. For whatever reason, this year hasn’t been it.”
“Until the last ball bounces, our kids are resilient. We continue to show up. We continue to play hard. We continue to play with some joy,” Cooley added.
However, Cooley said he did take some satisfaction from the performances of Mulready and Jeremiah Williams in Lewis’ stead.
“Kayvaun’s been committed to me since he was born,” Cooley told The Hoya. “Jeremiah, again, taking advantage of the opportunity to play an extended role, and he’s doing a great job with that,” Cooley added.
The Hoyas have one last chance to snap their losing streak and stay out of last place before the end of the regular season, hosting the Providence College Friars (14-15, 7-11 Big East) on March 7 at Capital One Arena.
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