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The Georgetown Hoyas improved to 3-3 on Tuesday with an impressive 68-49 victory over the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks.
The Hoyas stifled the Hawks from bell-to-bell on Tuesday night, invoking a strong defensive effort with their adversary being held under 50 points for the second straight game.
D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera led the way for Georgetown with 30 points on the night. The Indianapolis native added two rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block as well. Tre Campbell and Bradley Hayes scored seven points on Tuesday night as well.
Three things we learned from this matchup:
1. Georgetown capitalized off turnovers
The Hoyas were somewhat sloppy on Tuesday night, committing 16 turnovers. However, their opponents were sloppy as well, committing 19 turnovers. Georgetown was able to take advantage of their opponents' mistakes, scoring 22 points off of those 19 turnovers by the Hawks. Georgetown did what they had to do and keyed in on the mistakes their adversaries made on Tuesday night in the Nation's Capital. And it wound paying dividends.
2. D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera is the cog for the Hoyas
DSR did as DSR usually does. Smith-Rivera scored 30 points in the win over Maryland Eastern Shore, a season-high and a threshold he has not crossed since an NIT matchup against West Virginia in 2014. His 30 point effort on Tuesday night was just the third time in DSR's career at Georgetown that he has scored 30 or more points, with the third occurrence coming against St. John's on January 4, 2014 when he scored 31 against the Red Storm. Smith-Rivera is Georgetown's best player by far and the types of performances that he doled out on Tuesday are exactly what's made him such a revered and highly regarded player in this league and the country as well.
3. Georgetown was not caught napping prior to their matchup with Syracuse
Often times, teams will fall into the trap leading up to a big game. The Syracuse Orange will be traveling to D.C. this weekend, in case you didn't hear. And with that looming, one could imagine that maybe the Hoyas' were looking ahead to that matchup. That was not the case on Tuesday night against the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks as Georgetown passed the test with flying colors. They jumped out to a big lead early, kept the game in hand the whole way, and hardly struggled at all. Now, we look forward to Saturday when a rivalry is renewed.