WASHINGTON – Four Hoyas were in double figures as the Georgetown University men's basketball team pushed past the visiting Clemson University Tigers on Saturday afternoon in front of 8,562 fans. With the win in their downtown home of Capital One Arena, the Hoyas improve to 4-0 while Clemson suffers its first loss of the season to sit at 3-1.
 
ON THE RECORD
"First, I want to thank our crowd. The energy really helped us. The players talked about how they really appreciate the DMV. Our students were unbelievable. That's the energy that we were looking for and hoping for. I definitely think they were a key factor with the win, with the energy that they were able to provide. So I really appreciate them showing up and giving us all the love. I thought our players responded by what they did in particular." - Head Coach Ed Cooley on the game atmosphere
 
"I think just like anything, when you are on defense it is a will and a want. You don't have to be the most skilled person. You don't have to be if you really want to defend. And you try to get stops collectively, and you instill them to your organization, it kind of energizes the person next to you. If I see him playing that hard, and I see him playing that hard, it kind of festers, and that's something that we hope to continue to build on. We hang our hat on our toughness and our defense, because the ball is not always going to go in and again, little by little, the ball starts going in from three. But again, our identity is not on the offensive end. We hang our hat on trying to be physical, connected, and willing to try to defend." - Cooley on the team's identity
 
"We asked them to keep their heads up and keep them locked into the game, just knowing that we got their back. We asked them to play physical defense, and sometimes, sometimes a little bit too physical, and they get called for the foul, so we got to just do a better job of playing defense without fouling. But we let them know that they were playing good defense, and we got their back." - Malik Mack
 
"It was an energizer. I think [Isaiah Abraham] didn't realize how impactful that play was. You know, outside defense helping your brother out, and it gave everybody on the court and through the whole building energy. And I think we needed that for that little run we went on after that with this group." - KJ Lewis on Isaiah Abraham's pivotal block in the second half
 
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS

• KJ Lewis led all scorers and a quartet of Hoyas in double figures with a career-high 26 points on 7-for-15 shooting and an 11-for-14 effort from the charity stripe. The junior pulled down four rebounds and tallied five of the team's eight steals.
• Malik Mack scored 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting and 4-for-5 from the free throw line. Mack had a game-best seven assists and grabbed three rebounds. 
• Vince Iwuchukwu had another efficient game off the bench with 14 points on 4-for-6 shooting and a 6-for-8 performance from the charity stripe. The senior added four rebounds to his line.
• Caleb Williams and Deshawn Harris-Smith combined for 12 rebounds, each pulling down a team-high six. Williams posted 13 points and three assists in the game.
• The Hoyas scored nine points off six Clemson turnovers in the second half while forcing 10 total in the game.
• Georgetown shot 45.3% (24-53) for the game and 35.3% (6-17) from deep.
• The Blue & Gray was narrowly outrebounded by the visiting team, 36-35.

 
CLEMSON HIGHLIGHTS

• Carter Welling led the Tigers with 14 points off the bench on 5-for-8 shooting, while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists.
• Senior Nick Davidson was Clemson's second-leading scorer with 13 points and pulled down five rebounds on the day.
• Zac Foster scored 11 points on 2-for-4 shooting from deep while going 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Foster paced the offense with a team-high four assists.
• Jake Wahlin was a part of a trio of Tigers that scored eight points. Wahlin knocked down a pair of threes in the game and led Clemson in rebounds with seven.
• The Tigers shot 41.0% (25-61) from the field and 34.5% (10-29) from beyond the arc.
• Clemson saw 34 of its 74 total points come from the bench.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Georgetown got off to a hot start, jumping out to a 6-0 lead sparked by a Caleb Williams 3-pointer. A free throw from Lewis followed by a Halaifonua bucket brought the crowd to its feet as GU's defensive efforts in the opening possessions stifled Clemson's efforts.
• The Tigers wouldn't let it stop them, however, staging a 10-2 run to take the lead. A pair of free throws tied the game back up at 10 apiece. As Clemson drained a triple on one end, Caleb Williams laced the equalizer on the other end. A Lewis jumper would tie it again, this time at 15, before the Tigers tallied seven unanswered.
• Mack sank a 3-pointer and Caleb Williams added another bucket to make it a one-possession game but Clemson extended the gap once again with another trey.
• The game continued to go back and forth and despite an attempt at last second heroics once again, the shot did not land and the Hoyas went into the break trailing 36-33.
• The Blue & Gray battled through the opening minutes and behind a layup and a pair of free throws, tied the game up at 39-39. It was short-lived as Clemson managed another trey. Caleb Williams again had the retort. An Isaiah Abraham monster block on the defensive end gave the Hoyas the jolt they needed with the game tied at 44-44. Both teams went into the first media timeout tied at 48 apiece.
• Out of the huddle, Mack knocked down a triple from a Caleb Williams dish that would serve as the catalyst to a 12-3 run as the Hoyas took a 60-51 lead. Fueled by four points from Lewis, the spurt was capped by Caleb Williams' layup through traffic, prompting the Clemson timeout (9:34).
• The lead ballooned to as many as 10 before Clemson cut the deficit to two (68-66) with 4:39 to play. The Hoyas staged an 8-2 run featuring an Iwuchukwu alleyoop and five-straight points from Lewis to push the lead back up to nine (77-68).
• Despite a pair of treys from the Tigers, Iwuchukwu would tally the final points of the contest off of a two-point shot from the paint as the Hoyas would go on to win the contest 79-74.

 
OF NOTE

• The Hoyas are 4-0 to start the season for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
• Lewis' 26 points marked a career high for the junior. His previous best was 21 points, both set last season - once at West Virginia (01/07/2025) and once against Arizona State (03/04/2025).
• It is Lewis' second 20-point outing of the season, matching his season total from the 2024-25 campaign.

 
UP NEXT
Georgetown will be back in action on Saturday, November 22 when the squad hosts Wagner University. Tipoff at Capital One Arena is scheduled for noon 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 with the station announced later this week as well as on the SiriusXM app with Rich Chvotkin, in his 52nd season as the Voice of the Hoyas, calling the action.