LEXINGTON, Ky. – Malik Mack led a trio of Hoyas in double figures as Georgetown University's men's basketball team defeated the University of Kentucky Wildcats, 84-70, at Rupp Arena on Thursday evening in Lexington, Kentucky. It was the second of a pair of preseason exhibitions prior to the season opener on Monday, November 3 as Georgetown hosts Morgan State at Capital One Arena. Tipoff in the Nation's Capital is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
 
ON THE RECORD
"What a great opportunity this time of year for Georgetown to come play arguably one of the best programs in the country. We know it would be a really hard environment. I have a relationship, a very deep relationship, with someone on Kentucky's staff, Mark Fox, who worked with me for a year and who I've known for 30 years. I think he's an incredible coach, person, personal friend, and that's how this game came about. And I said, Mark, 'I want to try to challenge my team.' Going into year three, we're doing everything we can to try to bring Georgetown back to become a tournament worthy team. So we went to Canada this summer, challenged our guys, and we played five really hard games, lost in the gold medal game to Brazil. We didn't have three of our players, but we played the guys we had. Then we went to George Washington, which Georgetown hadn't played in GW in almost 50 years, to try to prepare us to come here. And I thought, you know, I thought our team really responded to the physicality, to the athleticism, to the length and this group that we're coaching, that we're blessed to coach. This group just has an incredible fight and an incredible will, and hopefully this can give us a little bit of confidence as we get into our nonconference, and help prepare us for incredible BIG EAST play. But I love this Kentucky team. They're fast in transition, they can really shoot the ball, obviously, when (Jaland) Lowe and (Jayden) Quaintance get back, I think they'll have a different identity. I thought our ball pressure really bothered him, and I thought the physicality of the game played into what I call BIG EAST basketball." - Head Coach Ed Cooley
 
"It was just something that I was seeing throughout the game. When I have a lane, I feel like I could take, I feel like I'm quick enough to get to the basket. So it wasn't something that I planned on doing going into the game, but just opportunities I was seeing with what the defense was given." - Malik Mack on the game plan
 
"It was just in the flow of the game. You know, I think we do a great job as a team in preparing, you know, with our strength and condition. And shout out to Coach White. I think you know, just as a team, it was just fun, naturally" - KJ Lewis on game preparation
 
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS

• Malik Mack led a trio of Hoyas in double figures with a game-best 22 points on 56.3% shooting (9-16) from the floor. He knocked down a pair from beyond the arc. The junior tied a squad-best five rebounds with Vince Iwuchukwu and a team-best three assists with Julius Halaifonua.
• KJ Lewis tallied 19 points on 8-for-13 (61.5%) shooting from the floor while also adding a rebound, block, steal and an assist.
• Iwuchukwu managed 14 points on three made buckets and an 8-for-9 performance from the charity stripe. Iwuchukwu's pair of blocks led the way as the Hoyas tallied six with a quartet of Hoyas managing one apiece. To complete his stat line, the senior managed a game-best three steals.
• Georgetown shot 55.4% (31-56) from the floor while going 17-for-23 from the free throw line.
• GU got outrebounded 38-30 on the glass but converted six offensive boards to nine points while UK's 16 on the offensive glass amounted to just 11 points.
• The Hoyas forced 15 turnovers from the Cats and converted them to 23 points while committing 13 turnovers of their own.

 
No. 9 KENTUCKY HIGHLIGHTS

• A trio of Cats were in double figures as Otego Oweh led the way with 17 points, followed by Mouhamed Dioubate (13) and Collin Chandler (11).
• Mouhamed, Shandler and Malachi Moreno led on the glass, grabbing seven boards each.
• Castro and Autry each dished out a quartet of assists to pace the offense.
• The Cats shot 33.3% (20-60) for the game and landed 7-of-30 from three-point range(23.3%).

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Georgetown got on the board first with a Julius Halaifonua bucket but both teams would trade buckets as the game was tied four times in the first three minutes of play. Kentucky would pull away but the Hoyas continued to find the answer.
• A Wildcat triple gave UK the 19-16 advantage but Georgetown strung together a quick five off a Halaifonua layup followed by a Kayvaun Mulready trey in a 20-second span. DeShawn Harris-Smith followed up with another bucket to complete the seven-point spurt to give GU the 23-19 lead (8:47).
• The Blue & Gray continued to inch away, pushing it to a two-possession lead behind the play of KJ Lewis and Mack, who both started to get hot on the offensive end. A pair of free throws from Vince Iwuchukwu pushed the lead to double digits (42-32) with 3:34 to play.
• The Cats would cut it back to seven on a triple but Georgetown pulled ahead again, this time behind buckets from Mack and Iwuchukwu to push it back to double digits (46-36). A triple from the Cats sent the squads into the locker room with the Hoyas up 46-39.
• Georgetown kept its foot on the gas, starting the second half on an 8-1 run fueled by four buckets, including three straight from Lewis for the 54-40 lead early in the second frame.
• As both teams struggled from the field, the teams were putting up points at the charity stripe as Kentucky started to chip away at the double-digit gap. After the Cats cut it to 11 (69-58), Lewis came up with a quick five points behind a layup and a triple to push the lead back to 16 and quiet the crowd of 19,251 Kentucky fans.

 
UP NEXT
Georgetown opens the regular season on Monday, November 3 when the squad welcomes Morgan State to the Nation's Capital. Tipoff at Capital One Arena is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game will be available on ESPN+ with Jeremy Huber calling the play-by-play and Martin Bahar providing analysis. The game can be heard locally on 1580AM as well as on SiriusXM 384 with Rich Chvotkin, in his 52nd season as the Voice of the Hoyas, calling the action.