WASHINGTON – On a Wednesday night where all five starters scored in double figures, the Georgetown University men's basketball team found its way back into the win column by defeating the UMBC Retrievers 90-81 in the District. With the win at Capital One Arena, Georgetown improves to 6-2 on the season while UMBC slips to 5-3.
 
ON THE RECORD
"You never want to be upset when you win a basketball game. It's a learning experience. I'm glad to be back home, really glad to be back home. I thought we performed really well offensively with 25 assists. It's probably the highest since I've been the coach here. So we shared the ball. Yet defensively, we got our work cut out. I did not like our defensive intensity. I don't like our defensive discipline. I did not like our defensive weakness. So I thought we got exposed today, and that's something we have a couple of days to work on before we head down south to play UNC. But happy with the win." - Head Coach Ed Cooley
 
"The one thing I do want to say about Coach Ferry's team, I thought he did the right thing with his scheduling, scheduling Maryland, going to Dayton. I thought he did a really good job in those two games in particular. We prepped our men on that, just on their style of play, which is totally different than we're going to play in the BIG EAST." - Cooley
 
"My coaches and my teammates put all the trust in me. They know it's my shot. It's something that I worked on a lot this summer, so they just keep telling me to be aggressive, and then for me, just looking to see when I can be aggressive within our offense so that it doesn't disrupt the flow." - Caleb Williams on offensive play
 
"Yeah, for sure, especially when I had eight in the first half, and so that kind of made the defense kind of collapse more, and that made me go to one of my strengths, which is finding open guys, and they know that's why it is good to get in right here." -Julius Halaifonua on finding open teammates cutting to the basket
 
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS

• Caleb Williams led all five starters in double figures with 18 points on 50.0% (8-16) shooting to go along with eight rebounds, two assists and one steal.
• KJ Lewis followed up with 17 points, also on 50.0% (7-14) shooting. He added five boards, four assists and one steal to his stat line.
• Julius Halaifonua matched his career highs in points, rebounds and assists with 16, nine and four, respectively. He was an efficient 6-for-8 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the charity stripe. His nine rebounds led the Hoyas on the glass as he also added one block.
• Malik Mack added 15 points on 60.0% (6-10) shooting from the floor and from deep (3-5) to go along with a squad-best seven assists to pace the offense and a game-best three steals.
• Isaiah Abraham chipped in 11 points on 57.1% (4-7) shooting to go along with a perfect 2-for-2 effort from the free throw line.
• Georgetown shot a season-best 56.3% (36-64) and dished out a season-best 25 assists on 36 made baskets.
• The Hoyas narrowly lost the battle on the glass, getting outrebounded 32-30 by the Retrievers.
• Georgetown forced seven UMBC turnovers on seven steals while committing a season-low six turnovers of its own.

 
RETRIEVER HIGHLIGHTS

• Junior Jah'Likai King scored a game-high 19 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the field, followed by Caden Diggs (13) and Daylon Dickerson (12) off the bench. DJ Armstrong Jr. and Josh Odunowo each added 10 points to round out those in double figures.
• Dickerson led the Retrievers in rebounds with seven.
• Armstrong Jr. and Dickerson's three assists apiece paced the Retriever offense.
• UMBC shot 48.4% (30-62) from the field, 34.8% (8-23) from beyond the arc and 81.3% (13-16) from the free throw line.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Georgetown got out to a quick start, reeling off seven straight behind a Mack triple sandwiched between layups from C. Williams and Lewis for the 7-0 start. From that point on, both squads would trade baskets as the Hoyas maintained at least a  two-possession lead for much of the first 10 minutes of the game before opening up a double-digit advantage on a Langston Love triple (22-12, 10:25).
• However, the Retrievers didn't back down, putting together an 8-2 spurt to pull within four before a Jayden Fort layup ended the mini run and gave the Hoyas some breathing room. GU's defense was struggling to get the stop but the offense made up for it as a Lewis 3-pointer pushed the lead back to seven (29-22). Both teams went back to trading buckets before a Jeremiah Williams 3-pointer was the catalyst for a 7-2 Hoya run capped by a pair of C. Williams buckets as GU took the 43-32 lead.
• Trading points once again, the teams went into the locker room with the Blue & Gray up 45-37.
• UMBC opened with a pair of buckets to start the second frame and cut the deficit to four before the Hoya offense tallied 17 unanswered over 3:23 to break the game wide open and take a 62-41 advantage (15:03). The run featured seven from Halaifonua, five from Mack, three from Lewis and two points from Abraham.
• As the Retriever offense got back on track, the Hoya offense didn't slow as a Love triple extended the lead to 22, its largest lead of the game. UMBC would slowly chip away as the minutes ticked down but Georgetown comfortably took the 90-81 win.

 
OF NOTE             `

• With 25 assists to its credit, Georgetown managed its season best in dishes, eclipsing the previous best of 21 against Wagner. It is the most assists for a Cooley-led Georgetown team, eclipsing the 23 assists in his GU opener against Le Moyne on November 7, 2023 - a 94-57 win.
• The Hoyas knocked down a season-best 11 3-pointers, surpassing its previous best of nine treys, against Wagner on November 22 and against Dayton in the ESPN Events Invitational on November 27.
• Of its 90 points, the Blue & Gray tallied 48 in the paint, exceeding the 46 against Binghamton on November 12.
• Georgetown's 45 points in the first half is the most in the first half for the Hoyas this season. It bests the 44 points the Blue & Gray scored in the first half against Wagner on November 22.
• Today's game marks the second time this season all five starters were in double figures. The first was Wagner (November 22).

 
UP NEXT
Georgetown will return to action on Sunday, December 7 when the squad travels to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face the UNC Tarheels at the Smith Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. on ESPN with Kevin Brown calling the play-by-play and Cory Alexander providing analysis. The game can be heard locally on Team 980 as well as on the SiriusXM app with Rich Chvotkin, in his 52nd season as the Voice of the Hoyas, calling the action.