The chants were unmistakable inside Verizon Center immediately following Georgetown's 67-65 loss to lowly DePaul on Wednesday night.
Compounding the ignominy was a revealing comment in the postgame news conference from Blue Demons senior guard Billy Garrett Jr., who had made two free throws with two-tenths of a second remaining for the decisive points in front of an announced crowd of 7,896.
“We kind of sensed that they didn’t want to play that hard,” said Garrett, whose foul shots were his only points of the second half and delivered DePaul its first road win against the Hoyas since 1991.
Garrett found himself at the free throw line after officials went to the monitor to determine whether he was fouled while driving for a layup at the buzzer. After several minutes of review, they determined Hoyas reserve forward Akoy Agau had made contact with Garrett before time expired.
Georgetown (14-14, 5-10) is assured of a second consecutive losing record in the Big East and needs to win two of its final three regular season games to avoid its worst conference mark since 2004. The Hoyas have lost four of their past five games in hitting one of the program's lowest points since Thompson took over in 2004.
It was just the Blue Demons’ second win in 18 games against Georgetown in the Thompson era. The other victory came in the first round of the Big East tournament, 60-56, in 2014.
“Let’s regroup and be ready to play on Saturday,” Thompson said when asked for his reaction to a loss to an opponent that entered with one Big East victory.
Sophomore center Jessie Govan paced the Hoyas with a game-high 18 points, but his turnover with one minute to play led to a layup for DePaul’s Tre’Darius McCallum that tied the score at 65.
Georgetown then got the ball with 23.7 seconds to play and called a timeout. The Hoyas were unable to get a clean look, though, with Govan badly missing a three-pointer, giving the ball to DePaul with 4.9 seconds to play. That’s when Garrett dribbled the length of the court and drew the foul.
Garrett led DePaul (9-19, 2-13) with 15 points despite an illness that kept him out practice the past few days.
“Credit to his resiliency,” said DePaul Coach Dave Leitao, whose move to zone defense in the first half precipitated a 30-9 run bridging each half.
Trailing by three at intermission and down seven early in the second half, Georgetown used a 14-4 surge to reclaim the lead. L.J. Peak closed the run with four consecutive points, including a pair of free throws to give the Hoyas a 50-47 advantage with 13:48 remaining.
DePaul managed to knot the score at 56 on consecutive layups by seldom-used reserve R.J. Curington, and after the Hoyas went back ahead by five points, McCallum sank a layup and a three-pointer for a 61-61 tie with 3:51 remaining in regulation.
What had been a 27-13 first-half lead vanished for Georgetown when the Blue Demons switched to a zone. As the Hoyas labored to make shots, the Blue Demons began gaining confidence by making theirs, including two three-pointers from reserve guard Chris Harrison-Docks, who entered the game averaging six points.
The senior guard pointed at the Georgetown bench following his second three-pointer that drew the Blue Demons to 34-27 with 4:31 to play. Thompson called a timeout seconds later, but Georgetown promptly turned it over out of the stoppage.
DePaul then reeled off nine unanswered points going into the break. A three-pointer from Curington pulled the Blue Demons in front 39-36 with 1:06 left and wound up being the final points of the half.
An early burst allowed the Hoyas to open a double-digit margin in the first half. Govan scored six points during the 11-5 run, and Pryor’s three-pointer made it 18-8 with 12:32 to play. After a timeout by Leitao, Georgetown reeled off another six in a row capped by two free throws from freshman guard Jagan Mosely.
“I don’t think it’s a question that we weren’t ready to play hard or didn’t play hard,” Thompson said. “I don’t think we executed like we needed to.”
