NEW YORK – An injury-laden Georgetown University men's basketball team fell in the first round of the 2025 BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep to 10th-seeded DePaul, 71-67, at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday evening. With the loss, Georgetown is 17-15 on the year while the Blue Demons improve to 14-18 overall.
 
ON THE RECORD
"It's a lesson for us. For them to beat us three times, it just was a bad matchup for us. Credit to Chris Holtmann and his group. He's going to do a great job at DePaul. I'm very, very disappointed in losing three times to them this year, but at the same time it goes to tell you how far we still have to go. Very, very disappointed in our emotional and just physical presence, toughness. Toughness is just not physical, it's an emotional attachment to winning. I think we definitely have improved as a program, as an organization. It just was a tough matchup for us against them." - Head Coach Ed Cooley
 
HOYA HIGHLIGHTS

• Micah Peavy led a quartet of Hoyas in double figures with 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting. He added seven boards and a pair of steals to his stat line in 38 minutes of action.
• Drew Fielder followed up with 11 points and 11 rebounds, his second double-double of the season. Fielder also paced the offense with four assists credited to the sophomore.
• Curtis Williams Jr. tallied an efficient 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting off the bench while grabbing a trio of rebounds while Jayden Epps added 10 points to round out those in double figures. The junior also added two rebounds and an assist.
• Georgetown shot 41.4% (24-58) from the field and was narrowly outrebounded 32-30 by the Blue Demons..
• GU forced 15 turnovers, tallying nine steals while committing just eight turnovers of their own.

 
DEPAUL HIGHLIGHTS

• N.J. Benson led a quartet of Blue Demons in double figures with 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the floor. Layden Blocker (16), Troy D'Amico (11) and CJ Gunn (11) rounded out the Blue Demons in double figures.
• Isaiah Rivera and JJ Traynor led the squad on the glass with six rebounds apiece followed by David Thomas who had five.
• Blocker paced the offense with six assists followed by Thomas with three.
• DePaul shot 51.0% (25-49) from the floor while shooting 37.5% (9-24) from beyond the arc.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Georgetown held an early 8-5 advantage behind the play of Peavy and Epps but a DePaul triple evened the score before Peavy tallied another score for the slim 10-8 lead (15:58).
• However, a 19-2 Blue Demon run ballooned the DePaul lead to 27-12 (8:22). Despite the deficit, the Hoyas would not quit as a Curtis Williams Jr. layup gave the Hoyas a bit of life. After a pair of DePaul free throws, the Hoyas reeled off six in a row to force the DPU timeout. Out of the huddle, the Hoyas closed to a one-possession game (29-26) with the last four of the run coming from Drew Fielder.
• DePaul extended the gap back to seven (33-26) but the Blue & Gray closed the first half on a 14-5 run on a balanced scoring effort that included an emphatic Burks dunk on the Curtis Williams Jr. dish to tie the score at 33-33.
• Trailing 37-36, Curtis Williams Jr. knocked down the final four points of the frame for the Hoyas as GU took a 40-38 lead into the locker room.
• GU came out of the break ready to roll with a quick 3-pointer from Malik Mack followed by a Fielder dunk to push the lead to seven (45-38). However, DePaul erased the lead quickly with back-to-back triples.
• The two squads would trade buckets but another trey for the Blue Demons knotted the score at 51 apiece. DPU staged an 11-4 run to take the 62-55 lead before a Peavy free throw stopped the bleeding. Trailing nine down the stretch, it was back-to-back Peavy buckets that pulled the Hoyas within five (65-60) as GU called the timeout with 3:44 on the clock.
• Peavy continued to carry the team on his back as a traditional three-point play from the graduate student pulled the Blue & Gray into a one-possession game (70-67), but that was as close as the Hoyas would get as DePaul staved off the GU comeback, 71-67.