Ewing and his crew, nevertheless, had been at house, and there’s no “X” in Georgetown Hoyas. There additionally wasn’t a lot protection in their 102-89 loss to Xavier in the Big East opener for each groups. The Hoyas have misplaced 20 straight Big East common season video games, and the 102 factors they allowed are probably the most they’ve yielded underneath Ewing.
“They got hot, but we let them get hot,” Ewing mentioned. “When you give up 50 points in the paint, 11 second-chance points and 17 fast-break points, all those things hurt.
“So it was the mistakes that we made defensively to give them wide-open shots, and they were able to knock them down.”
Georgetown (5-7) struggled to get stops all through the sport, notably in the second half. The Musketeers (9-3) shot 51.5 p.c from the sector in the opening 20 minutes, then upped that to 68.6 in the second. The Hoyas shot 51.6 p.c — simply shy of their season excessive — however that couldn’t offset the defensive lapses.
“I just feel like we just need to communicate more … when we have to double, just communicate more,” Georgetown heart Qudus Wahab mentioned.
Xavier went on a 13-3 run early in the second half to take a 72-59 lead, however Georgetown responded a 14-5 stretch, trimming its deficit to 4. Then the underside dropped out. Souley Boum went on a one-man 8-0 run, and Xavier scored 10 straight. The Hoyas by no means received nearer than 9 the remainder of the best way.
“Souley Boum was just amazing in the second half,” Xavier Coach Sean Miller mentioned. “He just kind of took over the game.”
Boum scored a game-high 28 factors to go together with seven rebounds, seven assists and 4 steals. Jack Nunge scored 18 and Zach Freemantle added 17 for Xavier, which scored 50 factors in the paint
Primo Spears led Georgetown with 22 factors. Wahab scored 16, and Brandon Murray completed with 15.
The Hoyas, a season faraway from the worst Big East marketing campaign in this system’s historical past, proceed to battle, and Ewing is staying targeted on bettering his crew for the convention schedule.
“I don’t listen to the outside noise. I just worry about what we can do as a group to get better. We’re disappointed that we lost tonight. We’re disappointed [whenever we lose]. Disappointed in the fact that we didn’t do what we expected to do last year. But that’s last year. This is a new year. We still have, what, 20 to 19 more Big East games to play. We lost one game.”
Here’s what else to find out about Georgetown’s loss:
The Hoyas trailed 10-2 in the primary minutes of the sport however rallied to minimize the margin to 43-38 by halftime. Georgetown saved it shut largely as a result of it gained the first-half turnover battle 7-2 and produced eight factors off turnovers.
The Hoyas entered ranked 227th in the nation and eighth in the Big East from past the arc, making simply 32.7 p.c from deep. Those traits continued in the primary half, when the Hoyas missed six of seven makes an attempt. They had been marginally higher over the ultimate 20 minutes and completed 6 for 17 from three-point vary.
Miller is in the primary 12 months of his second stint at Xavier, and Friday was his first Big East recreation as a coach (he performed at Pittsburgh).
“I’m grateful to be back at Xavier,” Miller mentioned. “All of us who played in the Big East in the ’80s, like I did, early ’90s, it’s like a badge of honor. … I think sometimes about the coaches that were in the league when I played. Jim Calhoun, he was just starting out. Rick Pitino, [Lou] Carnesecca. Obviously, John Thompson. Rollie Massimino, P.J. Carlesimo. I mean, these guys are all in the Hall of Fame.”
Georgetown celebrated a few of its legends at halftime, bringing again quite a few basketball alumni. Among these honored: Michael Graham, Joey Brown, Robert Churchwell, Irvin Church, Rodney Pryor, Ed Spriggs, Sid Levy, Tyrone Lockhart, Ra’mond Hines, Joey Brown, John Duren, Riyan Williams, Mark Thompson, Kenneth Brown, Lonnie Duren and Eric Smith.