As Georgetown went into halftime with a 42-28 lead over the Duke Blue Devils, anyone in the sold-out crowd of 20,035 could tell that something special was unfolding. No. 1 Duke came into the MCI Center with a perfect 17-0 mark, led by Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, two All-Americans in senior center Shelden Williams and senior guard J.J. Redick and had only trailed at halftime by a combined two points all season.
It wasn’t until senior forward Brandon Bowman pounced on Duke (17-1, 5-0 ACC) freshman Greg Paulus’ fourth turnover of the game with four seconds to go that the capacity crowd was finally able to erupt into jubilant celebration as a sea of gray flooded the court in front of a national television audience to celebrate the Hoyas’ 87-84 upset.
“Congratulations to Georgetown. They are superb,” a humbled coach Krzyzewski said after his team’s first loss of the season. “John [Thompson] and his kids played with all their hearts for 40 minutes … If you want to get beat, you want to get beat by people who earned it, and they really earned it.”
The Hoyas (13-4, 4-2 BE) set themselves up for victory in a first half where they held Duke to only 28 points, the Blue Devils’ lowest output in one half all season. In what would become a theme, Redick scored 18 of his team’s points in the first 20 minutes, while the rest of his teammates shot only 29 percent from the floor. On the offensive end the Hoyas shared the ball, scoring their 16 buckets on 14 assists, with 24 assists on 32 scores in the entire game, missing only eight shots all half and capitalizing on the Blue Devils’ relentless pressure on the perimeter.
“You have to take advantage of what the defense gives you,” fifth year swingman Darrel Owens said. “Usually teams sag off us and give us the open three, but today they played us tight so we were able to go backdoor.”
Coach Krzyzewski attributed the Hoyas big halftime lead to his opponents’ effort and his own team’s lack thereof.
“We could not match their intensity for a whole half. That doesn’t happen,” Krzyzewksi said. “Then all of a sudden we do J.J.-watching. We might as well buy a ticket and sit behind the bench because no one does anything.”
Without Redick’s career performance the outcome might have been even uglier than the 87-84 final. Redick, the nation’s third leading scorer at 27.3 points per game, scored 41 points on 50 percent shooting, including six of 11 from behind the arc. His output tied his career high and is the fifth-highest point total in the college ranks this season.
“I think we were fortunate,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “We wanted to make J.J. work and make him earn his points. Going into it you wonder how you are going to stop him and you’re not. He’s too good. This may sound crazy, but we did a decent job defensively and he still scored 41.”
While Redick scored nearly half his team’s points, Georgetown countered with a balanced attack that utilized the cutting nature of the Hoyas’ offense. Five Hoyas scored in double figures, led by Bowman’s 23 and sophomore forward Jeff Green’s 18. By using Green at the top of the key, shot-blocker Shelden Williams was forced out of his comfort zone in the paint, leaving him unable to protect the inside and contest Hoya lay-ins and dunks. Williams only converted two field goals all game, for four points, 14 below his season average.
“It wasn’t so much their offense, but the unity of that offense,” Krzyzewski said. “Their offense was playing as one and our defense wasn’t.”
The Hoyas jumped out to an uncharacteristic early 18-8 lead on a Bowman backdoor dunk at the 11:52 mark. Duke didn’t panic, however, and took the lead 22-20, capping a 14-2 run just under three minutes later on a three-ball from Redick. This would be the Blue Devils’ only lead of the game, however. The Hoyas retook their advantage on sophomore point guard Jonathan Wallace’s lay-up and free throw, 23-22. For the next 27 minutes and 47 seconds the Hoyas held on for the win, as Duke’s 56 second-half points were their most this season.
Georgetown could have made the game less interesting if they had converted more of their free throws down the stretch, shooting 70 percent on the afternoon. With under 30 seconds to go, senior guard Sean Dockery scored on a drive to the hoop and Paulus promptly stole the ensuing inbound pass and layed it in to bring Duke, who had trailed by as many as 16 points, to within 2, 86-84. Wallace, who had six assists and only one turnover, netted one of two free throws to give Georgetown a three-point lead with seven seconds remaining, setting up the final play where Paulus was not able to find Redick, and Bowman fell on the ball to secure the Hoyas’ biggest win in 20 years.
“They went away from him, thank God,” Owens said.
“It was a good win against a terrific team,” Thompson III said. “We showed a lot of guts out there today. We played with a lot of intensity. We played hard, but more importantly we played intelligently.”
As the buzzer sounded students and fans flooded center court at the MCI Center, sharing hugs, tears and high-fives. Junior transfer Patrick Ewing Jr. carried senior guard Ashanti Cook (17 points, five rebounds, four assists) off the court and John Thompson III embraced his father, who whispered to his son, “I love you.”
“The atmosphere was terrific,” Thompson III said. “The energy you get off your fans definitely helps how we play. It gives our guys a boost. The students have been great for two years now.”
The win was Georgetown’s first win over a No. 1-ranked opponent since the infamous “sweater game” against Lou Carnesecca and the St. John’s Red Storm on Feb. 27, 1985. And when the dust settled, Duke fell to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll behind Big East member UConn, while Georgetown rose to No. 21. It was the Hoyas first ranking in four years. Georgetown was last ranked on Dec. 27, 2001, when the team sat at No. 20.
Despite the emotional uplift an upset gives any team, the Hoyas were well aware of the work still left to be done on the season.
“This game is not going to win us the National Championship or get us where we need to be as a team,” Owens said. “In the conference season there are no nights off. We need to take this win and feed off of it.”
When asked what he was thinking as the final seconds on the clock ticked away, Thompson III said matter-of-factly, “Notre Dame.” It was a good thing that he had his mind focused on the Hoyas’ Tuesday night match-up with the Big East rival Fighting Irish (10-7, 1-5 BE), as his team almost suffered a huge letdown and scratched out a thrilling 85-82 victory in double overtime.
The Hoyas had previously lost five straight games at the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind., and looked primed to snap that streak, up four as time expired in regulation. But junior guard Colin Falls (18 points) nailed a fadeaway three-pointer from the corner with 1.8 seconds left and was fouled by Bowman (seven points, six rebounds) on the shot. Falls hit the free throw to force overtime where senior guard Chris Quinn (26 points, 10 assists) bounced a shot off the rim as time expired to force a second extra period, with the score tied 76-76.
Darrel Owens’ (18 points) three-pointer with 2:18 left gave the Hoyas a 83-79 lead and sophomore center Roy Hibbert’s (18 points, 13 rebounds) inside score with 1:08 on the clock sealed the game, Thompson III’s 100th career win. This marked the third time in the last seven meetings the two teams have gone into overtime. The Irish won in quadruple overtime at the MCI Center in 2002 and at home in double overtime in 2003.
The Hoyas look to hold on to their ranking and stay in the national spotlight as they take on the Cincinnati Bearcats (14-6, 3-3 BE) this Saturday at 12:00 p.m. at the MCI Center.
