Micah Peavy scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half for Georgetown as the Hoyas earned a hard-fought 85-77 victory in their season opener against visiting Lehigh on Wednesday night in Washington.
Thomas Sorber paired 20 points with 13 rebounds for Georgetown (1-0), which shot 31-of-64 (48.4 percent) from the field. Jayden Epps, who finished fifth in the Big East last season with 18.5 points per game, scored 17 points.
After finishing 9-23 in his first year with the Hoyas, coach Ed Cooley is confident this year’s squad will improve.
However, Lehigh dictated the run of the play in the early part of the first half and led 24-16 with 13:23 remaining.
The Hoyas recovered and finished the first half on a 10-0 run over the final four minutes and led 44-39 at the break.
Georgetown still had trouble distancing itself from Lehigh early in the second half. A 3-pointer by Malik Mack boosted the Hoyas’ lead to 66-60 with 7:53 left.
Mack, a Harvard transfer who was named to the Bob Cousy Watch List this season, finished with 15 points and five assists.
A pair of free throws by Sorber gave Georgetown a 75-68 lead with 4:21 left in the game. Jordan Burks’ layup – his only points of the game – capped an 8-0 run and boosted the Hoyas ahead 81-68 with 1:23 to go.
Keith Higgins Jr. led Lehigh with 22 points, while Cam Gillus finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.
Tyler Whitney-Sidney, who led the Mountain Hawks with a career-high 15.2 points per game dished out a team-best 65 assists last season, had 13 points, three assists and eight rebounds.
Lehigh shot 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from 3-point range.
The Mountain Hawks (0-2) opened the season with a 90-46 loss at Northwestern on Monday.
Lehigh, which has 11 returners from last season, advanced to the Patriot League Tournament championship game last year for the first time since 2017 before losing to Colgate 74-55.
Georgetown improved to 4-1 all-time against Lehigh. It was the teams’ first meeting since the first round of the 1985 NCAA Tournament when the Hoyas rolled to a 68-43 victory.