MILWAUKEE – The Georgetown University men's basketball team defeated the Marquette Golden Eagles in its conference opener at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night, 78-69. With the win in Milwaukee, Georgetown improves to 8-3 overall with a 1-0 mark in conference play. Marquette slips to 5-7 and 0-1 in conference action.
 
ON THE RECORD
"First and foremost, I? love BIG EAST games. We knew we were going to come into a determined team coming off a couple of road losses. BIG EAST plays differently. Everybody's energy. I can tell you, I love Coach Shaka Smart's young guys … I thought our guys were really disciplined with the game plan we tried to have. You know, BIG EAST basketball, it's great anytime you can win on the road, and come and try to steal a win. So it was a great game. Really interesting to see what's going to happen in the BIG EAST because you know, at any given time, you know anybody can beat anybody. We were just fortunate today. We made some free throws and didn't turn the ball over." - Head Coach Ed Cooley on the game
 
"But the one thing I can say is Julius [Halaifonua], in the last month has really grown, has really developed. You know when Vincent (Iwuchukwu) went down, obviously a major concern of ours. But to just see how this young man has worked, changing his body, and trusting in what we're doing with him, I couldn't be more proud of his growth and development." - Head Coach Ed Cooley on Julius Halaifonua's performance
 
"Going into the game, obviously, I knew that I had a size advantage, but also I knew that they could possibly trap or collapse whenever I caught the ball. So it was just kind of keeping my eyes open for cutters or open guys." - Julius Halaifonua on advantages inside
 
"I think we do a great job in practice taking care of the ball. I think we give all credit to the guards and the bigs … We all help each other so I think we just have a tight-knit group and that helps us take care of the ball." - Jeremiah Williams on Georgetown's lack of turnovers this season
 
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS

• Julius Halaifonua led a quintet of Hoyas in double figures with a game-best 21 points on 70.0% (7-10) shooting from the field. He also added a squad-best six rebounds.
• Malik Mack was second on the team in scoring with 13 points on a 5-for-12 performance from the field. He added three rebounds, a game-best five assists and one steal.
• Jeremiah Williams, in his first start, tallied a season-best 15 points on 62.5% (5-8) shooting and a 5-for-6 performance from the free throw line. The graduate student also added five rebounds and a squad-best five assists.
• Caleb Williams tallied 11 points, all in the second half, shooting 50.0% (4-8) from the field. He added a squad-best six boards and one steal.
• Langston Love came off the bench to round out those in double figures with 10 points on 40.0% (2-5) shooting and an 83.3% (5-6) performance from the charity stripe while adding a squad-best six boards.
• Mack and J. Williams paced the offense with five assists apiece while Halaifonua added four.
• Georgetown shot 46.6% (27-58) for the game and was 87.0% (20-23) from the charity stripe.
• The Hoyas dominated the glass, outrebounding Marquette 41-30.

 
GOLDEN EAGLE HIGHLIGHTS

• Damarius Owens led the Golden Eagles with 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting, followed by Nigel James Jr. (13), Royce Parham (12) and Sean Jones (10).
• Owens had a game-high seven rebounds while Caedin Hamilton snagged six and Ben Gold grabbed five.
• James Jr. paced the offense with five assists while Jones added four.
• Marquette shot 42.2% (27-64) from the field, 26.9% (7-26) from beyond the arc and 66.7% (8-12) from the charity stripe.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The home team got on the board first and set the tone quickly, draining a triple to take a 5-2 advantage. Georgetown had the response early as four straight behind a pair of Halaifonua free throws and the tip-in dunk from Fort gave the Hoyas their first lead of the game, 8-7 (16:08).
• However, a 12-4 Golden Eagle run ballooned the lead to seven (19-12) before a Halaifonua dunk made it a two-possession game.
• MU continued its momentum, extending the gap to as many as nine (29-20) but the Blue & Gray reeled off 10 unanswered to take the 30-29 lead. The spurt was sparked by another Halaifonua bucket, back-to-back triples from Mack and Halaifonua and capped by a Jeremiah Williams jumper.
• The squads traded a pair of buckets apiece but Langston Love closed the frame with five of his own, including a 3-pointer with three ticks on the clock as Georgetown took a 37-33 lead into the locker room.
• Out of the break, the Hoyas struck first with a pair of free throws before Marquette put together a traditional three-point play to make it a one-possession game. The Hoyas managed six straight behind four from the frontcourt duo of Halaifonua and Fort and a pair of free throws from Mack.
• Despite a triple on the other end, Georgetown kept the Golden Eagles at bay, maintaining some breathing room midway through the frame. However, five straight for MU made it a one-possession game (58-55) with 8:41 on the clock. The Hoyas turned on the jets at that point, staging a 17-5 run over more than five minutes of action, scoring from inside and the charity stripe.
• The Hoyas would never look back, securing the 78-69 win at the final whistle.

 
OF NOTE

• With the win, Georgetown snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Golden Eagles. The last time the Hoyas defeated Marquette came on March 10, 2021 when they won 68-49 in the first round of the BIG EAST Tournament.
• The last win at Fiserv Forum was an 86-84 win during the regular season finale of the 2018-19 season.

 
UP NEXT
Georgetown will return to the District for a three-game homestand, starting on Saturday, December 20 when the squad hosts the Xavier University Musketeers to Capital One Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with Noah Reed calling the play-by-play and Phil Martelli providing analysis. The game can be heard locally on 99.1 FM as well as on the SiriusXM app with Rich Chvotkin, in his 52nd season as the Voice of the Hoyas, calling the action.