The Georgetown Hoyas look to rebound from a bad opening loss when they host the American University Eagles on Tuesday night.
The defending Big East Tournament champion, Georgetown (0-1) lost its opener Saturday to Dartmouth of the Ivy League, 69-60.
“When I talked to people before the season started, I said it’s going to be peaks and there’s going to be valleys,” coach Patrick Ewing said of a team that lost its top four scorers from a season ago.
“Right now is a valley. We didn’t start the way that we would have liked to have started against a team that we were definitely more talented than. But they outplayed us.”
Ewing’s team rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to briefly take the lead, but Dartmouth responded with an 11-0 run.
The bright spot for Georgetown was Aminu Mohammed, who led the Hoyas with 17 points in his debut.
“Aminu’s going to be a very good player,” Ewing said. “He’s a downhill guy. He’s going to fight. He’s going to scratch. He’s going to claw.”
Center Timothy Ighoefe missed the game after suffering a concussion in practice earlier in the week.
American is 2-0 for the first time since starting 5-0 during the 2010-11 season after a 74-62 win against William & Mary on Friday.
Stacy Beckton Jr. went 6-for-6 from the field in the second half en route to a game-high 24 points and added a game-high nine rebounds. Connor Nelson had 11 points and six rebounds.
After losing a late lead before winning in overtime against Marist, American didn’t allow a late rally against William & Mary, making seven-of-eight free throws down the stretch.
“Something we keyed in on after playing Marist,” Beckton said. “We wanted to be able to finish the game not turn the ball over. Rebound the ball. Everyone contributed to rebounding and was able to knock down free throws down the stretch.”
Johnny O’Neil added 11 points and a team-best three 3-pointers.
“This group’s been terrific from the start,” said coach Mike Brennan. “They work hard, they like each other. It’s a pleasure going down to the gym with them and I think it shows up in how they play, both sides of the court.”
–Field Level Media
