Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
For some teams 2025 can’t end soon enough, and for others a victory to ring in the New Year sounds nice. For the Hoyas, 2025 ended in dud fashion with no real celebration taking place in a 95-83 loss.
Coming into this game the Hoyas had high hopes that they would have Brazilian point guard Gabriel Landeria in the line-up tonight, except instead of playing he was in uniform at the end of the bench with no sights of even possibly checking into the game. According to sources he may not have fully been cleared to play. We will see if he hits the floor in their next game on Tuesday night against DePaul.
KJ Lewis led the way for the Hoyas (9-5, 1-2) with 27 points and three steals. Georgetown also got 18 points and eight assists from Malik Mack. Caleb Williams also had nine points.
The Hoyas had tough going in the first half when the Johnnies big men hit the Hoyas size hard when Julius Halaifonua picked up his second foul early and headed to the bench. The Hoyas trailed by a bucket at the first media break, 13-11.
Halaifonua would pick up his third foul mid-way through the first half and was forced to the bench until Cooley could bring him back in the game late in the second half, by then the Johnnies already had the lead they needed and he pretty much a non-factor in the remainder of the game. In his last game against Coppin State he scored 20 points and had his way inside the paint. Not the same caliber team and it showed against a much stronger St. Johns.
Zuby Ejiofor, the Big East preseason player of the year for St. Johns led the way for them with 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two steals as the Johnnies cruised to their first win on New Year’s Eve since 1960.
After the game Ed Cooley gave some other updates on how his offense could be helped soon in the form of Vince Iwuchukwu. “He is “day to day” with another doctor appointment coming up, said Cooley.
