It’s the holiday season and your Georgetown Hoyas squared off against the Seton Hall Pirates in South Orange, NJ Sunday night. While Seton Hall (5-7) has struggled this year, with losses to Fordham, Hofstra, and Monmouth, Georgetown looked to back up a convincing win against Creighton earlier in the week in their BIG EAST season opener. In this holiday rock fight, the youngsters, led by Thomas Sorber, stepped up to give the Hoyas their second win in BIG EAST play as the Hoyas improve to 10-2 on the season.
HOYA SAXA! The last time Georgetown started a Big East season at 2-0, Apple introduced the iPhone 7.
— Casual Hoya (@CasualHoya) December 23, 2024
Out of the gate, Georgetown wasted no time getting back into their rhythm. Coach Cooley clearly wanted Thomas Sorber (19PTS, 8REB, 2AST, 2STL, 4BLK), the New Jersey native, to get involved early, and he opened the scoring with a nice post move. Jayden Epps’ (15PTS, 3REB, 3AST) hot hand from beyond the arc carried over in the early going with a three from the top of the key. The offense chugged along, but the Hoyas’ defense was the story. To characterize it as suffocating would be an underestimation. Georgetown forced difficult shots at the end of the shot clock and collected a couple of steals to kickstart an 7-0 Georgetown run. Just 4 minutes into the contest Seton Hall’s coach, Sheehan Holloway, decided he had seen enough, called timeout, and substituted 4 of his 5 starters. After the timeout, Georgetown extended its run to 11-0. After 6 minutes without a field goal, Seton Hall finally ended the Hoya run, but not before the Hoyas had a commanding 14-3 lead. By the under 12 minute timeout, the Hoyas led 16-7.
Over the next 8 minutes, the game got sloppy with each team tallying only 7 points a piece. Georgetown’s defense stayed tough, but the Pirates also tightened up defensively. Georgetown fell into a 7 minute field goal drought, maintaining their lead from the free throw line. With 2 minutes left in the half, Sorber broke the scoring drought with a nice mid-range jumper. He’d finish the half with 13PTS and 3REB. Of note, throughout the first half, Seton Hall struggled mightily from beyond the arc, shooting a whooping 1-11 3PT (3-24 3PT in the game). Even with the 7 minute drought, Georgetown managed to post 32 points in the first half. Off the back of the early 11-0 run, Georgetown closed the first half with a 32-23 lead…