Georgetown Puts All the Pieces Together in Win over Villanova

WASHINGTON — Georgetown wasn’t supposed to pile up losses this season, so staring at three of them before February concluded brought the Hoyas to an unusually early inflection point.

A few things were clear. This wasn’t going to be a clean, linear progression. There weren’t going to be a spate of blowout victories like in 2022. And league play was going to matter a bit more.

Sure enough, there have been fits and starts, with some blowouts mixed in with close calls. Yet Georgetown once again emerged unbeaten in the Big East, clinching the league title with a 12-8 defeat of Villanova at Cooper Field on Friday night.

“There was a lot of pressure on our team at the start of the year, and not everything is going to be a perfect upward trajectory,” defenseman Will Bowen said. “We hit some bumps early and fortunately we learned a lot, and our team is going to be better off from the way we started the season. We’re starting to see some of those lessons come into play in these late games.”

Tucker Dordevic had four goals and an assist and Graham Bundy Jr. added three goals for the Hoyas (10-3, 5-0 Big East), who never trailed in a game played in a steady rain. Georgetown has won nine meetings in a row against the Wildcats (10-4, 3-2) since 2018 and 20 in a row against Big East opponents dating back to March 2021.

Two more victories would give the Hoyas their fifth consecutive Big East tournament title.

“The exciting part is that last year was last year and this year, we just had to find a way,” coach Kevin Warne said. “It’s been peaks and valleys, ups and downs, good plays, bad plays and whatever it may be. The guys have a really good mindset of just continuing to be really smart, really fundamental and understanding we’re just getting better.”

Patrick Daly had three goals and an assist for Villanova, which could have bolstered its hopes for an at-large NCAA tournament berth with a victory. The Wildcats will be the No. 3 seed in the Big East tournament and face second-seeded Denver (9-4, 4-1) on Thursday in Milwaukee.

“We’re excited we’re in the Big East tournament,” Wildcats coach Mike Corrado said. “It gives you a chance to win your conference tournament, and that’s goal No. 1 every year. We have a chance, and we get to go out there. … It’s a chance to keep our season going.”

Georgetown has won 10 in a row, the longest winning streak in Division I, and its early disjointedness on offense was smoothed out weeks ago. The Hoyas had scored at least 13 goals in each of their victories before Friday and averaged 18.7 goals during a three-game road trip heading into their regular season finale.

It was the defense that came around slower, a jarring sight for a program whose rise under Warne was largely defined by stingy play. Seven of Georgetown’s opponents during its winning streak reached double figures, including a 15-goal outburst from Lehigh on March 25 in a game that resembled a full-field scramble drill and Marquette’s 14-goal showing as the Hoyas escaped in overtime April 15.

Gone were headliners like goalie Owen McElroy and defenseman Gibson Smith IV, but the departures of ace short stick Zach Geddes and long pole Alex Mazzone (who has thrived on close defense at Johns Hopkins) were also major losses. And early on, it showed.

“We went through a bit of a gauntlet early in the season, and there were a lot of new pieces coming in and just meshing took a little bit longer than maybe we expected,” said goalie Danny Hincks (seven saves). “Historically, it’s a great defense and we had high expectations and kind of just doing what the 2023 Georgetown Hoya defense can do is something we’ve been building on.”

Hincks, a graduate transfer from Dartmouth, has been part of the Hoyas’ attempt to put the pieces into place. He started the first three games, was benched in favor of Michael Scharfenberger and regained the job April 18 at Loyola after serving as a calming presence in relief three days earlier at Marquette.

Friday’s performance was particularly cohesive for the Hoyas, especially considering Villanova’s unorthodox and largely effective brand of offense. Bowen contained Wildcats midfielder Matt Campbell, who entered averaging 4.38 points but was held to a goal and two assists (with just one even-strength point).

Bowen said Villanova’s tempo was a point of emphasis this week, and the Hoyas were willing to draw out possessions at both ends of the field to prevent the game from becoming too chaotic. The result was a showing that looked much like what was anticipated from Georgetown all along.

“We still have a ways to go, but I think this has been a long time coming for us to play as a unit,” Bowen said. “Transitioning from last year to this year, we lost some of our veterans and they were really important to our defense. It was a bit of a building process early on but we have some very talented guys who compete as hard as anybody in the country.”

It’s tempting to suggest Georgetown finds itself in a similar spot as last year, a veteran team on a long winning streak capable of playing deep into May. That bunch, a No. 2 seed coming off an NCAA quarterfinal appearance in 2021 that was the program’s first in 14 years, was unceremoniously bounced by Delaware in the first round.

This year’s Hoyas have not enjoyed the same kind of assurance thanks to the February losses to Johns Hopkins, Penn and Notre Dame. This was a more uneven year, for sure. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a more successful one.

“Ever since the Notre Dame game, we’ve just been able to get just a little bit better,” Warne said. “Things are starting to click. Guys are finding their groove, and defense is about trust and communication and we’re getting to that point where we’re doing a good job of trusting each other, understanding the plan and executing, which we’ve done in the past. It’s just taken us a little while to get going.”

NOTABLE

• Stephen Avery scored on the second possession of overtime to lift Denver to a 15-14 win at Marquette, the Pioneers’ fifth straight win. It was the Golden Eagles’ third straight OT loss. They’ll need winless St. John’s to defeat Providence by at least five goals Saturday to qualify for the Big East tournament, which Marquette is hosting.

• The road to the Patriot League championship goes through Boston. Reigning champion Boston University scored three of the last four goals to defeat Army 12-11 in West Point and earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Neither team led by more than two goals throughout the taut contest. Vinec D’Alto led the way with two goals and three assists, as BU put up 50 shots on Knox Dent (17 saves).

• With Lehigh’s win over Lehigh and Navy’s win over Bucknell, the Patriot League playoffs are set. Sixth-seeded Lafayette visits third-seeded Lehigh and fifth-seeded Loyola plays at fourth-seeded Navy in quarterfinals Tuesday. The lowest seed left will meet BU and the highest seed left will play Army in the semifinals next Friday in Boston.

• UMass defeated Hobart 13-9 to secure the last spot in the inaugural Atlantic 10 tournament. Goalie Matt Knote made 16 saves, including 11 in the second half.