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 had 20 points and 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 with 18.5 points per game last season, scored 17 points.

After going 9-23 in his first year with the Hoyas, coach Ed Cooley is confident the team will improve this year.

However, Lehigh dictated the course of the game at the start of the first half and led 24-16 with 13:23 to go.

The Hoyas rallied and ended the first half with a 10-0 run in the final four minutes to lead 44-39 at halftime.

Georgetown was still struggling to distance itself from Lehigh early in the second half. A 3-pointer from Malik Mack increased 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.

Two free throws from Sorber gave Georgetown a 75-68 lead with 4:21 to play. Jordan Burks' layup – his only points of the game – capped an 8-0 run and gave the Hoyas an 81-68 lead with 1:23 left.

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 and had 13 points, three assists and eight rebounds last season.

Lehigh shot 10 of 23 (43.5 percent) from 3-point range.

The Mountain Hawks (0-2) opened the season on Monday with a 90-46 loss at Northwestern.

Lehigh, which has 11 returning players from last season, made it 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 cruised to a 68-43 victory.

–Field level media