Dawgs Over Dolphins: Hoyas Blowout Le Moyne, Cooley Picks Up Win in First Game as Georgetown Head Coach

Behind a double-double each from Supreme Cook and Dontrez Styles, the Hoyas got a dominant win against the visiting Dolphins of Le Moyne College.

You didn’t need to wait until the game got going to feel the difference in the building on Tuesday night as Georgetown got ready to begin its season— and the Ed Cooley Era— against the Le Moyne Dolphins.

Just like it has been all summer, the energy was completely different for all parties inside Capital One Arena. Fans, players, coaches, administrators— hell, even arena staff— seemed to have a little more pep in their step.

The good vibes kept going right through tip-off, and carried all the way through, as Georgetown romped to an easy 94-57 victory against the visiting Dolphins, in front of an announced crowd of 9,335.

The crowd of 9,335 was Georgetown’s largest home crowd for a season opener since November 2011, per John Hawkes on Twitter.

After a miserable, torturous last two years, it was no small feat for a Georgetown team to get an easy win against an inferior team that it should beat to start the season.

You could call the night a success just off of that alone, but when you consider the overflowing student section, the lively game atmosphere, cameos from noted Georgetown alums like Chris Wright and Reggie Williams, and the pump-up by Ed Cooley to the crowd during a TV timeout…it’s impossible to consider tonight anything but a smashing success for Ed Cooley and the Georgetown Hoyas.

When asked about his pump-up moment after the game, Cooley said, “I'm an in-the-moment type of person. And I think our students, our supporters, they need to know how much we appreciate them, how much we need them. We feed off of them a lot. And that's something you have to do as a leader.

“You have to come out of your comfort zone to let people know they are important. Our players get energized when they're [the fans] energized. That's something I've done my whole career, and I won't stop.”

On the court, the results were similarly promising. The Hoyas’ new faces all performed well, highlighted by Dontrez Styles (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Supreme Cook (19 points, 13 rebounds).

After the game, a relaxed Cooley said, “I was really proud of the preparation and I was proud of how our players executed what we asked them to do.”

Hoya fans got a look at their future right away, when Drew Fielder calmly hit a three-pointer for Georgetown’s first points of the season.

“I’ll never forget, he made the first basket in my first game as a coach here at Georgetown,” said Cooley. “He had the jitters a little bit, but overall I think he’s going to be a player we’ll talk about later on in his career.”

Fielder had a rough night shooting from deep (1-for-6 from behind the arc), and struggled with foul trouble, but finished with a solid 11 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes of action.

After a sluggish first 10 minutes, the Hoyas settled in midway through the first half, extending their lead to double digits at the 11:56 mark on a Rowan Brumbaugh (13 points, 6 rebounds) fastbreak bucket.

A 9-0 run late in the first half put Georgetown up 44-21 before Le Moyne’s Luke Sutherland ended the run with a layup. The Hoyas came right back though, and ended the half with Dontrez Styles getting open and knocking down a corner three to put Georgetown up 47-23 at halftime.

The second half got off to a shaky start for Georgetown, involving four turnovers in the first 90 seconds of the half. Jayden Epps, who only scored 5 points but finished with a game-high 11 assists, was assessed a technical foul for shoving a Le Moyne player to the ground during a stoppage in play.

Le Moyne couldn’t take advantage of the Hoyas’ lull to start the second half, however. For the game, the Dolphins shot a measly 32.3% from the field and 22.6% from three. From the charity stripe, they were similarly poor, finishing 8-for-16 from the line.

The rest of the second half was full of highlight plays, sharp ball movement, and some strong post play especially from Supreme Cook, who had a strong debut in a Georgetown uniform.

Georgetown put an exclamation point on its emphatic win late in the game when Rowan Brumbaugh (13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists) stole the ball, spun away from his defender, and hit an open Jay Heath (15 points on 6-12 shooting) running towards the basket, who then lobbed the ball off the backboard to Drew Fielder for the dunk, putting Georgetown up 85-53 with 3:17 to go.

If Tuesday’s season opener was a test for Ed Cooley to see how his efforts to rebuild the connection between basketball program and university are going, he passed with flying colors.

Cooley was sure to give the fans, especially the students, a shoutout to start off his postgame presser.

“First and foremost, I want to thank our students, our community for coming out and supporting our men,” said Cooley. “The first game that we've coached here and played here. Hopefully that continues to grow as we continue to grow.”

The challenge will be to maintain this positive momentum, specifically the crowd attendance, when the losses start to come, but the Hoyas’ win against Le Moyne gave Georgetown fans good reason to think “This time, it’s going to be different” with a new head coach in charge.