With less than one minute remaining in last Saturday’s home game against the surprising Pittsburgh Panthers, first-year guard Drew Hall approached the line with the Hoyas trailing 66-64 and calmly sank two free throws to tie the game. The MCI Center, for several shining moments, resembled Cameron Indoor Stadium, the student-crazed home court of the Duke Blue Devils.
With eight seconds remaining in the same game, Panthers starting forward Jaron Brown tipped in an offensive rebound for two of his 10 points?following a Mike Sweetney free throw miss?to give the Panthers a 68-67 advantage. Senior point guard Kevin Braswell got the inbound and brought the ball up court.
“I don’t believe in calling a timeout in that situation,” said Head Coach Craig Esherick. “I have a senior point guard, and calling a timeout only gives [Pittsburgh coach] Ben Howland time to set up a defense too.”
Braswell pushed the ball up court and penetrated the lane. Rather than taking it to the rack, however, he dished out?to a wide-open Hall behind the three-point arc on the right wing. Hall clanked the shot. Pittsburgh 68, Hoyas 67.
“I’ll live with Hall’s shot,” said Esherick. “He’s shooting 40 percent from there.”
Hall’s dual role of hero?tying a game down to the wire?and goat?missing a potential winning shot?is as marked a study in contrasts as this year’s Hoyas squad, who followed the heartbreaking loss to Pitt by soundly trouncing Big East rival Notre Dame, 83-73.
Georgetown seems to send different teams to the court on different nights. Against Notre Dame, the Hoyas recorded a plus-16 rebounding margin including 20 offensive boards for the game. Against Pittsburgh, they were mauled on the boards, 35-28, including only seven offensive rebounds.
The Panthers took an early lead in the contest Saturday, but Georgetown stormed back with five minutes left in the first half on a three-pointer from first-year guard Tony Bethel. With 3:15 left in the half, Sweetney dropped a tip-in to give the Hoyas a 27-21 advantage. First-year swingman Harvey Thomas followed with a trey to put the Hoyas up nine, but crisp passing by the Panthers got them to within three, 32-29, at the half.
At the beginning of the second half, Pitt came out firing, grabbing a four point-lead with 16:12 remaining, at which point junior co-captain Courtland Freeman was called for walking. His travelling sent the ball back downcourt with the Panthers. Knight promptly buried a three, giving the Panthers a seven-point lead. Eventually, the Panthers built the lead to 13.
“I think we did a great job of getting back into that game,” said Esherick in reference to Pittsburgh’s second-half lead, “because at some point, we could have quit. We played good, solid defense and Mike did a very good job bringing us back into this game.”
Unfortunately, the Hoyas were not able to hit the boards as effectively as the Panthers, not surprising since starting center Wesley Wilson only played nine minutes on the contest.
“When they get the lead, they slow the ball down, giving us a hard time to try and catch up,” said Esherick. “Howland went small, and I had to go small to match. We get a quicker team out of it, and we needed that to pick up full court. That’s harder when I run Mike and Wesley in there. Wesley got less time, as a result of the matchups Howland was running and the need to catch up.”
There was no need to catch up against the Fighting Irish on ESPN’s Big Monday, as the Hoyas jumped all over them, with Sweetney recording a double-double within the first 12 minutes of the game. He finished with 21 points and 16 boards for his Big East-leading 10th double-double; Georgetown put five players in double figures, including 11 points and six rebounds from Wilson and 11 points and 7 boards from Freeman, in one of his best performances of the season. Ryan Humphrey, ND’s first-team All Big East power forward, did finish with 19 points and 11 rebounds, but most of those baskets came during garbage time; he was held in check entirely by Georgetown’s post defense.
A crucial stretch awaits, beginning Saturday with a road showdown at Pittsburgh. On Monday, ESPN and the Big East-leading Syracuse Orangemen come to MCI for perhaps the biggest game of the season. With 12 wins currently, the Hoyas will need to beat Syracuse at least once to have a chance at a NCAA Tournament bid.
Sweetney said it best last Saturday, mid-afternoon, sitting in the eerie silence of the Hoyas locker room in the bowels of MCI. Staring straight ahead, with his teammates not talking?barely moving?he commented, “We just gotta come in tomorrow, and get ready for another day.”
Two of them, in fact.
