After a long weekend and a lot of turkey, I can now look back and reflect upon Georgetown’s trip to Hawaii.

Teams

Georgetown:
There were lots of questions surrounding this year’s Georgetown team entering Maui, as the first few games were not challenging enough to show us what the team was made of. After the tournament, I think we all have a better sense of this year’s team.

The Hoyas showed me a lot, playing hard throughout the whole tournament, competing at the same level as the two top 25 opponents that they faced and soundly defeating an inferior opponent. The Hoyas did make a number of mistakes that are typical for teams with lots of underclassmen, such as going on extended scoring droughts and falling asleep on defense occasionally. But, the team was able to overcome these flaws for an impressive overall performance in Maui.

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Georgetown played its most impressive game of the early season Wednesday, as the young Hoyas rode senior leadership to a dramatic 91-88 victory over the #8 Memphis Tigers in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational. Henry Sims scored a career high 24 points, scoring in every conceivable way and showing an indomitable will previously unshown to Hoya fans, while Jason Clark followed up Tuesday’s career-high 28 points with an equally impressive 26, knifing through the Tiger defense to finish at the rim on one play, stroking a high-arcing three ball the next. If Georgetown’s narrow opening loss to Kansas left any doubt, the Hoyas proved they belong in the national rankings Wednesday, bringing back from Maui a hard-fought win over a top-ten team and the acclaim to go with it.
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Georgetown: 91, Memphis: 88 (OT)

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The Georgetown Hoyas advanced to 4-1 with a thrilling overtime win over the #8 Memphis Tigers in the 5th place game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational Tournament. The Hoyas were led by Jason Clark’s game-high 26 points off of 9-17 shooting. Henry Sims added 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists.
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Georgetown bounced back from Monday night’s tough loss to Kansas by routing Chaminade Tuesday, 88-61. The win over a Division II opponent doesn’t add anything to the Hoyas’ tournament profile, but was impressive none the less, and set up a high-profile showdown with #8 Memphis on Wednesday. The quick turnaround also is exacerbating blogging-induced carpel tunnel syndrome, so you’ll get just a few quick bullets from yesterday’s game.

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Georgetown: 88, Chaminade: 61

The Georgetown Hoyas won their second game in Maui, defeating the Chaminade Silverswords 88-61 in the second round consolation game. It was an uneven game from the outset as the Hoyas hit their first five three-pointers and used a three minute, 12-0 run to pull away from the Division II Silverswords.

Jason Clark had a career-day as he led all scorers with a personal-high 28 points off of a career-tying six three-pointers. Freshman Otto Porter also had a career-high 17 points to go with his game-leading 7 rebounds.

Georgetown will face Memphis tomorrow at 5:00pm in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational Tournament. The Tigers fell to Michigan on Monday and defeated cross-state rivals Tennessee in double-overtime before the Hoyas took the court.

Facing its first ranked opponent Monday night in a raucous Maui gym, a young Georgetown team proved it belonged while also showing how far it still has to come. The Hoyas hung with #14 Kansas for the entire game, battling back whenever the Jayhawks appeared to be pulling away. But the small mistakes of youth–a failed box-out there, a thoughtless turnover here–kept the game just out of reach, with Kansas ultimately prevailing 67-63 in the last minute. Georgetown lost a game it probably could have won, but also repeatedly refused to back down when given the opportunity.

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