By Brandon Walker for Urban Media Today
Washington, DC— In a much-anticipated battle between teams just ten miles apart, Georgetown, powered by Jaland Lowe’s 22 points and eight assists, defeated Maryland Saturday evening at Capital One Arena.
Lowe, a Kentucky transfer, made an instant for Georgetown with his three-point shooting (5 for 8 from three), playmaking, and leadership so much that his backcourt partner Kayvaun said that he never experienced it.
“Honestly, J-Lowe got me speechless,” Mulready, who finished with 15 points with five three-pointers made, said in the postgame press conference. “I’ve never had a point guard like this. He teaches us drills and how to pass to each other and how to trust each other with everything. So, honestly, I’m going to just shout out J-Lowe.”
Action went back and forth early; Maryland (1-1) led 9-7 after the first media timeout, with Andre Mills scoring five points and Elmarko Jackson scoring four. Georgetown (2-0) went on a 6-0 run with Cole Machot making plays on both ends of the floor coming off the bench and giving the Hoyas a boost.
The action remained tight as both teams went back and forth; however, Georgetown has been shooting better from the three-point line, and Maryland has been pounding the ball down low with Pharrell Payne inside, which is the only effective offense that Maryland has had during the middle of the first half.
Vince Iwuchukwu made two baskets in the paint, and Jeland Love led the way with 12 points with 7:19 left in the first half. Maryland continued to struggle on the offensive end as they tinkered with their rotation; however, DJ Wagner converted a three-point play before the final media timeout of the half. To make it 32-26. However, Georgetown went on a 12-0 run, with three-pointers from Jaland Love and Malready, to take a 44-28 lead going into halftime.
The key difference in the first half was Maryland shooting 1-for-11 from three, compared to 8-for-17.
Georgetown continued with its aggressive play, forcing three Maryland fouls in the first minute of the second half. Georgetown continued to blitz Maryland, extending its lead to 25 by the first media timeout in the second half. Georgetown then cruised to a victory that was not much in doubt for most of the second half as they stayed hot from three, although Maryland made a run to make the score a bit more respectable.
Georgetown shot 15 for 30 from three, while Maryland shot 3 for 20, and Maryland coach Buzz Williams saw the correlation in the result in its shot selection.
“I don’t know that our offense helped our defense at the rate that it has to in order to win on the road, and I also think that when you are shooting unpredictable shots, you’re going to be on a broken floor,” Williams said in his post-game news conference. “We need our offense to be better so that we can get our defense set.”
Payne scored a game-high 28 points and eight rebounds for Maryland, while Kaden House and DJ Wagner scored 13 and 11 points, respectively. Tomislav Buljan had a game-high 10 rebounds. Elmarko Jackson scored 17 points, and Iwuchukwu added 12 points for Georgetown.
At Saturday’s game, the second of a four-year series in which Georgetown won both, Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley spoke about the importance of the regional rivalry to fans and hopes it will remain a local staple in his post-game news conference.
”I appreciated all the fans that came out from both schools to support this game, which is something we wanted to do and something we hope to continue to play as we move forward.” Cooley said. “Just a good night here in the District.”
Maryland will host ninth-ranked Virginia on Friday, while Georgetown will host Delaware State on Tuesday.
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