Around 2:40 p.m. last Saturday afternoon, the MCI Center was enveloped in darkness, with only a handful of employees running around, lowering the baskets to the floor and cleaning up the aisles. Slowly, however, a young man strode down the hallway from the locker rooms onto the court, running one hand through his hair in distress, while the other clutched a Diet Pepsi. Drew Catlett, the interim head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers, stared into the darkness.
“We need to get to the line at least 20 times,” he said, to no one in particular.
Following a game in which his squad reached the line a mere six times?to Georgetown’s 42 appearances?in a 84-77 Hoyas win, Catlett certainly had a lot to consider in the darkness of the Hoyas’ home court: his team?which he inherited after his father, the coach of the Mountaineers for the last three decades, missed two games recovering from a viral infection?was now 1-7 in the Big East and 8-12 overall. With the win, Georgetown moved to 5-4 in the conference and 14-7 overall.
“We definitely relaxed a little bit at the end,” admitted Georgetown Head Coach Craig Esherick, in reference to losing a 22-point lead, “but in the end, it was a Big East win, and that matters a lot.”
Twenty seconds into the game, sophomore swingman Gerald Riley buried a long jumper to put the Hoyas on the board, and begin a career-best 21-point afternoon for the Georgia native. Riley added eight rebounds and seven of 13 shooting, including three of four from three-point range.
“Gerald is a very good shooter, but his wrists had been bothering him a little bit,” said Esherick. “He played a great game.”
With 10 minutes remaining in the first half, first-year Harvey Thomas saved a ball from going out of bounds then tossed it behind his back to a teammate. Following a basket by sophomore power forward Mike Sweetney, the Hoyas went up 21-11, but gradually let the lead slip to six points, 26-20. This occurred with just under seven minutes remaining after a 10-footer by highly-touted West Virginia first-year guard Jonathan Hargett. The Hoyas ran the lead back to 38-24 with 2:42 remaining after Riley buried a three and concluded the first half cruising, 43-31.
“From the last six minutes of the first half to the first six minutes of the second, we let a six-point lead become a 20-point lead for them,” said Catlett. “If we had those points, our comeback at the end could have become a win.”
The Hoyas did come out firing in the second half, opening with an amazing backdoor pass to Riley for a quick two points. With West Virginia using a similar defensive strategy to Pittsburgh?triple-teaming Sweetney in the paint?junior forward Courtland Freeman became an option, extending the lead to 59-39 with 14:06 remaining. Two minutes later, senior point guard Kevin Braswell, who had been mostly quiet up to that point, sliced through traffic in the lane and threw a beautiful no-look pass to Freeman, who slammed it home for a 61-39 advantage and the largest crowd reaction of the afternoon.
“I always try to substitute freely,” said Esherick, “because it keeps our players fresh. However, when you sub with a big lead, I think that can lead to players relaxing, and you cannot relax against anyone in the Big East.”
The Mountaineers did begin to claw back into the game, cutting the lead back to 14 points with eight minutes remaining in the game, off several consecutive possessions ending in lay-ups.
West Virginia senior guard Lionel Armstead wasn’t done yet, however: He buried three three-pointers in the final three minutes of play, as part of a 14-point effort on the day. His last three-pointer brought the score to 82-75 with 18 seconds remaining, but the Hoyas were able to hold on for the 84-77 victory.
“The difference in that game was Sweetney,” said Catlett. “Their size and inside presence, especially his size and inside presence, was too much for us to handle.”
Sweetney led all scorers with 27 points and 10 rebounds, while West Virginia’s senior power forward and floor leader, Chris Moss, contributed 20 points and 11 rebounds. Junior center Wesley Wilson added a double-double, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“The story of this game was really the free-throw shooting,” said Catlett, noting that his team reached the line only two times in the first 20 minutes of play.
The Hoyas conclude their three-game home stretch on Saturday afternoon against Notre Dame, a squad Georgetown pummeled on the road earlier this season. However, the Fighting Irish are coming off a win against Pittsburgh, who defeated Georgetown twice this season, and the Irish now return senior power forward Harold Swanagan, who was injured for the first meeting between the teams.
“They certainly have more confidence than they did before,” said Esherick. “We need to remember that we can’t relax in games like this, or in a league like this.”
