The 2000-2001 Georgetown Hoyas won their first exhibition game on 11/3/00, defeating the All-Army Team from Fort Hood, 71-66. Freshman Mike Sweetney paced all scorers with 19 points and turned in a double-double with 15 rebounds. He also blocked 3 shots in his 22 minutes of playing time. Newcomer Wesley Wilson led the team in blocked shots with 4 rejections while pulling down 7 boards while Freshman Omari Faulkner was a perfect 4 for 4 from the stripe while grabbing 6 caroms. Senior Nathaniel Burton represented the old guard on the stat sheet as he scored 12 points and pulled down 5 boards.
"I wanted to experiment with combinations", said Head Coach Craig Esherick, "and that broke up the offense's rhythm, which caused the score to be a little closer than I would have liked.. We have to do a better job with free-throws. We were terrible from the line..We've got to shoot better from the line and I think we will. We've got to handle the ball better and I think we will.. I thought for a first game, we did a lot of good things."
The Hoyas scored the first 8 points and never looked back. The Tankers reduced their deficit to 3 with 14 minutes remaining in the first half, which was as close as they would get. Within minutes the Georgetown lead was 16, (28-12, 06:43 1st half). At the intermission the Hoyas led by 12 , 36-24.
In the second stanza the Hoyas continued to build their lead, eventually gathering a 22 point edge (58-36) with 10:28 remaining. As Coach Esherick experimented with combinations, the Tankers stormed back, cutting the lead to as few as 4, (70-66) with 00:34 left in the contest. Along the way 4 of the tankers had fouled out, sending Georgetown to the line for 49 free throw attempts. Although the Hoyas only scored 28 points from the stripe, it was enough for a 5 point win, 71-66.
