FINAL TUNE-UP: Georgetown Coasts Over Coppin State, 71-54

Styles and Brumbaugh lead in last home non-conf game

Your Georgetown Hoyas beat a undermanned and overmatched Coppin State team, 71-54. The Hoyas were without Jayden Epps, who was out with an illness, and still took care of business in their last home appearance until the start of the BIG EAST season.

Before the full recap, a quick primer on Coppin State. They entered the game 1-10. They have lost to Virginia Tech by 45 points, Towson by 21, Louisville by 20, and George Washington (why don’t the Hoyas play them every year?) by 31. They are led by first-year Coach Larry Stewart, who played at Coppin State in the 90s and replaced Juan Dixon, who never won more than 11 games in his six years as coach. Last year, Coppin State took the Hoyas to overtime and eventually lost. That was a very sad time.

Simply put: this is a team Georgetown should hammer. And eventually, they did.

Nevertheless, the Hoyas got off to a slow start on Wednesday. The score was 8-7 ten minutes into the game. There is not much of note to write up about the first half of the game other than how difficult it was to watch. Georgetown ended the half leading 29-14 on the back of three-pointers from Jay Heath and Rowan Brumbaugh in the final two minutes.

The Hoyas shot 29% from the floor in the first half. Coppin State shot 23%. Ya.

The beginning of the second half was much crisper, as the Hoyas got off to a quick start in the first four minutes. Spurred by two threes each from Dontrez Styles and Ishmael Massoud, Georgetown led 41-18 at the 16-minute mark. Despite a few mini-runs from Coppin State in the second half that saw the score cut to 51-37 and 60-47, respectively, Georgetown was able to remain comfortably ahead for the remainder of the game.

Not a lot should be taken from the dismantling of a very raw Coppin State team. I do have some random thoughts, though, and if you’ve made it this far, thank you:

– It was nice to see Georgetown maintain steady defense throughout the game. Then again, that might have just been Coppin State not being very good. The most immediate effect of Ed Cooley’s coaching is apparent on defense. It’s refreshing to see some form of competence and effort on that end.

– The Hoyas offense is streaky and three-point dependent. If Epps misses a game against a superior opponent, Georgetown will have their hands full.

– I enjoy Supreme Cook. Cooley has clearly told him to get his hands dirty in the paint as the only physical big on the team, and he’s at least a willing combatant. 11 rebounds on the night, averaging 8.3 rpg on the year.

– Dontrez Styles continues to impress. Shades of a slightly smaller but better scoring DaJuan Summers here.

The Hoyas return to action on Saturday at 2:15pm ET at Micah Shrewsberry-led Notre Dame (4-5). The Irish have losses to Western Carolina, Auburn, South Carolina, Miami and Marquette.