Georgetown wears blue and gray. Villanova sports blue and white.
But when the visiting Wildcats meet the Hoyas at Verizon Center tonight, another color is certain to stand out in the crowd: red.
It’s the color of Villanova point guard Scottie Reynolds’ alma mater, Herndon High. When the freshman McDonald’s All-American makes his return to Washington, he’ll have several hundred supporters there to share in the moment.
As a senior, Reynolds led Herndon to its first Northern Region title and the Virginia Group AAA state final. He finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer and developed a rabid following.
Cindy Vaughan started to put together a group of 25-50 supporters for the Georgetown game in November. Vaughan is the Herndon boys basketball team statistician and her son, Evan, played with Reynolds.
“Within about three days I had about 100 people,” said Vaughan, who now has 229 in a group that will fill most of section 400. She estimated the support from Herndon High alone could be 350-400. “If you caught me at a game or a football game and you knew I was selling tickets, I sold them to you.”
“Is it an unusually large request [for a visiting team]? Yes,” said Georgetown sports information director Michael “Mex” Carey, who said the school does not track specific numbers.
“It shows that we’re a close-knit community, and it’s refreshing for me to know that I put in four hard years there, and people appreciate — not just people from the school and the community, but people from the state and the Northern Region come out and support. It makes you feel good,” said Reynolds, who said the struggling Wildcats (10-4, 0-2 Big East) are a more-pressing issue.
“I’m not really worried about the game being in D.C. and having a lot of people there,” said Reynolds. “We’re 0-2 right now in the Big East. We need to come in and play a good game, and try to play Villanova basketball for 40 minutes.”
The only Villanova freshman to start every game this season, he nearly doubled his career-high with 25 points, including seven 3-pointers, in Saturday’s loss to DePaul.
In the Hoyas, he’ll face a program that recruited him last spring after he was released from his letter of intent with Oklahoma following the resignation of coach Kelvin Sampson. Reynolds got an earful from the Sooners’ faithful when the Wildcats visited in December, something Vaughan and others remember.
“When [Reynolds] comes on the court, you’re going to hear us,” said Vaughan. “The response that he got in Norman, where he touched the ball and everybody booed — I think you’re going to find it a little different on Monday.”
Reynolds’ homecoming
Villanova (10-4, 0-2 Big East) at Georgetown (11-3, 1-0)
» When: Tonight, 8
» Where: Verizon Center
» TV: ESPN
