WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University men's basketball team could not contain the visiting Villanova Wildcats, falling 70-54 at Capital One Arena. With the setback, the Hoyas are now 8-17 on the season with a 1-13 mark in BIG EAST play while the Wildcats improve to 14-11 on the year with a 7-7 record in league action.
 
ON THE RECORD
"I thought we played harder today. I thought we were a lot more detailed in our defensive approach. I thought this was the most connected we've been defensively. I liked our short preparation … I'm grateful for our crowd. I'm grateful for our students. I just need them to hang in there with us as we continue to fight and claw. I don't think we were attentive to detail enough on small things, and think that has hurt us all year: our attentiveness, our wherewithal. We were playing against a very good team, a veteran team, a well-coached team, and so our mishaps continue to show up … Defensively we're not as connected as we need to be, and that's on me … I'll tell you, I feel our team got better today."  - Head Coach Ed Cooley
 
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS

• Rowan Brumbaugh came off the bench to lead the Hoyas with 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting to go along with a squad-best five assists.
• Jay Heath was the other Hoya in double figures as he tallied 12 points on four made field goals, including a trio of triples.
• Supreme Cook managed a squad-best 11 rebounds while Wayne Bristol Jr. pulled down eight of his own.
• Georgetown shot 34.4% (21-61) for the game and allowed Villanova 45.5% (25-55) shooting for the game.
• The Hoyas held the advantage on the glass, outrebounding the Wildcats 36-31.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Hoyas opened the scoring with five-straight points as a Cook layup was followed by a Heath 3-pointer for the Blue & Gray to take a 5-0 advantage.
• Holding Villanova scoreless for more than three minutes, the Wildcats finally managed a triple at 16:29 to put a dent in the lead but a layup from Styles pushed it right back to a two-possession game.
• Georgetown would lead by as many as five, but VU knotted the score at 8-8 with 12:05 on the clock. The teams would go back and forth and an Ismael Massoud triple would knot it up once again at 15 apiece but a Nova 11-2 run gave the visitors a commanding lead. Villanova took a 28-19 lead into the break.
• Georgetown came out shooting in the second half, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers from Brumbaugh and Dontrez Styles to take it from a nine-point deficit to a one-possession game in less than a minute.
• Another big run from the 'Cats ballooned the deficit to 12 (39-27) before a Jayden Epps 3-pointer closed the gap to single digits.
• Trailing by 11, GU staged an 11-4 run fueled by buckets from Epps and Brumbaugh and bookended by 3-pointers from Heath and Styles to pull within four (45-41) with 11:58 to play. That's as close as the Blue & Gray would get, falling 70-54 at the final whistle.

 
UP NEXT
The Hoyas return to action on Wednesday, February 21 as they stay in the District to host the St. John's University Red Storm. Tipoff at Capital One Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on FS1 with Alex Faust calling the play-by-play and Tarik Turner providing analysis. The radio call of Rich Chvotkin, in his 50th season as the Voice of the Hoyas, can be heard locally on The Team 980 and nationally on the SiriusXM app.