Georgetown suffers first loss of season to Penn State

After a pair of wins over low major squads to open the year, the Georgetown Hoyas had their first real test of the season Thursday night as they welcomed the Penn State Nittany Lions to the Capital One Arena for the penultimate Gavitt Game.

Unfortunately for the Hoyas, the test went spectacularly poorly, with Penn State cruising to an 81-66 victory. The Nittany Lions dominated the affair from the start rolling to a 25-7 lead ten minutes into the game. Georgetown did what it could to chip away, but like we saw in Villanova/Ohio State, once you get down by that big of a margin it’s hard to come back (unless you’re Marquette).

Adding to Georgetown’s first half woes? They committed 13 turnovers in the first frame, and Penn State turned the mistakes into 16 points, which could have been even worse. The other big blow for the Hoyas in the first half was when Omer Yurtseven picked up his second foul with 6:12 left. The center was Georgetown’s leading scorer and rebounder at the time, and the Hoyas were chipping into the Penn State lead before Patrick Ewing benched Yurtseven for the rest of the half.

Despite all this, Georgetown was down by just eight going into the half, 42-34. The second half wasn’t much better for the Hoyas, though. They only turned it over eight times (for an ugly 21 total for the game), but Penn State’s three point shooting remained hot and Georgetown’s offense struggled aside from Yurtseven, who finished the night with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his third double-double of the season.

Myreon Jones led Penn State with 21 points.

The Hoyas fall to 2-1 on the season and will face Georgia State on Sunday.