Welcome home, Trey: Mourning, Hoyas top La Salle 93-78 (Dec 10, 2016)
MIAMI (AP) Trey Mourning was the last Georgetown player to get into the game, as well as the last player to leave the court after posing for plenty of photos and hugs with friends and family.
Best of all, his team got a win.
L.J. Peak scored 24 points, Rodney Pryor added 19 and Georgetown closed with a flourish to beat La Salle 93-78 on Saturday in the Hoophall Miami Invitational. It was tied at 67 with 8:44 left, before the Hoyas finished on a 26-11 run.
''We have a happy plane ride back to D.C.,'' Mourning said.
Jessie Govan scored 19 points and Jagan Mosely had 14 for the Hoyas (6-4), who won their fourth straight. Georgetown shot 53 percent for the game and 58 percent from 3-point range.
''We had a pretty good week of practice, working with different offensive situations,'' Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. ''And I think the week of practice showed up. We got out ... they tied it up, and then I think our guys really locked in and focused at both ends of the court, to be honest.''
Jordan Price scored 23 points for La Salle (4-4), which got 19 more from B.J. Johnson and 10 from Pookie Powell. The Explorers were outscored 36-22 from the line, getting there 10 fewer times than Georgetown.
''We just lost control of it,'' La Salle coach John Giannini said. ''My kids are good players and they work hard. I just have to figure out our defensive problems. Our defensive results are not good and we have to figure that out.''
The last substitution of the night came with 23.2 seconds left, when Mourning got into the game - a homecoming moment.
He was a Miami Heat kid, once worked as a ballboy for the team and getting on the floor in the arena that his hometown team calls home had a certain significance. He spent some time working in the NBA visiting locker room, the one Georgetown used Saturday. The Hoyas even sat at the end of the floor where his father Alonzo Mourning's No. 33 sways from the rafters as one of the numbers retired by the Heat.
''It's just good to be home, whether it's at the hotel or dinner with my parents or on the court or on the bench,'' said the younger Mourning, who wears No. 33, just like his dad did for Georgetown and with the Heat. ''We don't get home very often. And to have it intertwined with the basketball season, it worked perfectly.''
BIG PICTURE
La Salle: The Explorers were playing outside of Philadelphia for the first time this season - it had four home games, one at the famed Palestra, and played Temple and Drexel on the ''road.'' ... La Salle still leads the all-time series against the Hoyas 15-10, though the programs have met only twice since 1965.
Georgetown: Alonzo and Tracy Mourning sat courtside, and some of the proceeds from the event will benefit their Mourning Family Foundation. ... This was the only game the Hoyas have between Dec. 4 and Dec. 17. ... Mosely's season-high coming into Saturday was six points, done on three occasions.
HALL OF FAMERS
A handful of Basketball Hall of Fame members were in attendance - Mourning, of course, along with former Heat assistant Bob McAdoo and Heat President Pat Riley were among those present Saturday. When Riley was introduced, the de facto anthem for Miami's three NBA championship teams, Bruce Springsteen's ''The Rising,'' blared through the arena.
UP NEXT
La Salle: The Explorers get a week off, before hosting Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 17.
Georgetown: A great rivalry gets renewed on Dec. 17, when the Hoyas visit Syracuse.
