NEWARK, N.J.—The NCAA tournament hopes for the Georgetown men’s basketball team continued to fade late Thursday night at Prudential Center, where the Hoyas fell behind by double figures in the first half, threatened only briefly thereafter and were unable to catch Seton Hall during a 82-67 loss that was the Hoyas’ second in a row.
In losing for the fourth time in five road games, Georgetown dropped two games below .500 in the Big East with four games left in the regular season. The Hoyas (15-11, 6-8 Big East) are winless against each of their remaining opponents.
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Georgetown was swept in the regular season series in large part because of uncharacteristically poor defense, particularly in limiting open three-point looks. The Pirates shot 55 percent overall and 8 of 17 from beyond the arc against the top-ranked three-point field goal percentage defense in the Big East.
The Hoyas, who missed 8 of 13 from three-point range, got a team-high 20 points from D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, 13 from Markel Starks and 11 from Jabril Trawick.
Trailing by nine at halftime, Georgetown scored the first six points after the break to draw within 37-34 with 17 minutes 52 seconds left in regulation. But Seton Hall countered by scoring eight in a row and after Smith-Rivera’s jumper added six more points consecutively for a 51-36 lead.
The Hoyas made another charge midway through the second half by scoring eight of 10 points that whittled the deficit to 65-54, but again Seton Hall was able to push back when backup forward Patrik Auda scored on a layup and reserve guard Jaren Sina followed with a three-pointer to allow for plenty of breathing room the rest of the way.
Georgetown fell behind quickly in the first half and was forced to chase with Starks (Georgetown Prep) in foul trouble. The starting point guard picked up his second personal less than five minutes after tip-off and his third with 5:16 to play until intermission.
During that stretch, Seton Hall opened a 25-15 lead on the strength of a 10-2 run that included three-pointers from Sterling Gibbs (18 points) and Fuquan Edwin (game-high 21 points). Starks briefly brought Georgetown back with consecutive layups, and when Jabril Trawick sank a three-pointer, the Hoyas were within 27-22.
But the Pirates (14-12, 5-8) scored seven of the ensuing nine points capped by a three-point play from backup center Eugene Teague to expand the margin back to 10. Moments earlier Teague also made a layup while drawing contact but missed the bonus free throw.
When Starks went to the bench with his third personal, the Hoyas proceeded to go without a point for nearly 3:30 while seldom-used reserves Stephen Domingo and John Caprio. Neither player averages more than 4.9 minutes per game.
Trawick ended the scoring drought with a fast-break layup, but a three-pointer by Edwin bumped Seton Hall’s lead to 37-26 before backup forward Aaron Bowen sank a layup to close the half for the Hoyas, who were making a trip to the New York/north New Jersey area for a second time in five days.
The last visit yielded an 82-60 loss to St John’s at Madison Square Garden that matched Georgetown’s most lopsided this season and ended a four-game winning streak.
That revival allowed the Hoyas to start thinking about a possible NCAA tournament bid following a five-game slide that put those aspirations in serious jeopardy. Georgetown has four games left in the regular season to fortify its NCAA tournament resume but is winless against its remaining opponents: Xavier, Marquette, Creighton and Villanova.
Georgetown also lost to the Pirates, 67-57, during the teams’ first meeting at Verizon Center just over one month ago. In that game, the Hoyas built a 38-28 lead less than a minute into the second half but failed to score for the final 9:44 and had a 16-game home winning streak end.
The Hoyas lost their next three in a row by an average of 10 points before collecting a 64-60 win against Michigan, then ranked seventh, to begin a turnaround that ended abruptly at the world’s most famous arena and sent them back below .500 in the Big East.
