Not much separated the Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team (11-11 overall, 3-8 Big East) from the No. 9 Pittsburgh Panthers (18-4 overall, 8-3 Big East) Tuesday night in the Hoyas 82-67 loss. Simply put, the Panthers came through in the clutch; the Hoyas didn’t.
“Not getting to these wins is bothering us a lot,” said Hoyas junior power forward Mike Sweetney. “We’ve just gotta figure out a way to improve.”
In the first half, Georgetown was able to hang with the Panthers, and led for much of the period. Behind stellar play from Sweetney, junior swingman Gerald Riley and sophomore guard Tony Bethel and suffocating team defense, the Hoyas led 14-8 until the 10:10 mark, when the Panthers went on an 11-4 run to take the lead. The remainder of the half went back and forth and the Hoyas went into the break tied at 33.
Having two players score well behind Sweetney has been the hallmark of Georgetown’s success this season. In the Hoyas 85-73 win on Sunday at Virginia Tech, Riley scored a career-high 31 points and Bethel added 10 to go along with Sweetney’s 25. In the first half against Pitt, Bethel hit three three-pointers for nine points, Riley added seven more and Sweetney led the way with 12.
The second half was a different story. The Panthers went on a 7-0 run before Georgetown could get on the board. Sweetney single-handedly brought the Hoyas back, scoring seven of the Hoyas’ nine points during the team’s subsequent 9-0 run, including an offensive put-back to cap the run and give Georgetown a 42-40 lead with 12:38 remaining.
Panther senior forward Dantas Zavackas and senior guard Brandin Knight made sure that Sweetney’s heroics were the Hoyas’ last gasp. The two combined for 19 points over the next 10 minutes, including five straight from Zavackas once Georgetown went ahead. Zavackas, who was coming off the bench for the first time this season, also hit a three with 3:21 remaining that put the Panthers ahead by 11 and the Hoyas to bed.
Knight bounced back from a mid-year slump to lead the Panthers with 23 points on 7-12 shooting and a remarkable six for six from the foul line, which had previously been his weakness. Prior to the Georgetown game, the point guard had been shooting an awful 45 percent from the line.
“I’m really pleased with how Brandin and Zavackas played tonight,” said Pittsburgh Head Coach Ben Howland. “They really played like two seniors.”
In the last two minutes, the Panthers, who had been last in the conference in foul shooting with 61.6 percent from the line in Big East games, hit 13 of 14 foul shots.
“We’re concentrating more on our foul shooting,” said Pitt junior guard Julius Page. “Everyone on our team can make them; we just knocked them down tonight.”
While Riley and Bethel backed up Sweetney offensively in the first half, the two combined for just five points in the second period. Bethel’s three-point attempt with 6:46 remaining would have cut the Panthers’ lead to five, but it rattled around the rim and out. (https://fernandez-vega.com)
“The three-pointer that Tony Bethel shot that I thought it went all the way in, and then came back out, I thought that was a big play,” said Georgetown Head Coach Craig Esherick. “If that ball had gone in I think that would have given us a lift.”
Sweetney finished with 28 points and eight rebounds and showed impressive stamina, continually beating the Pitt defense down the floor. Still, he failed to touch the ball on three consecutive Georgetown possessions during the Panthers’ main run in the second half. Sweetney is second in the conference both in scoring and rebounds, averaging 22.5 points per game and 9.9 rebounds.
The 15-point loss, Georgetown’s worst of the season, returns the Hoyas to the basement of the Big East West Division, tied with Rutgers (11-12 overall, 3-8 Big East). The Scarlet Knights lost last night at No. 24 Connecticut 87-70. The team that finishes last in the Division will not make the Big East Tournament.
The Hoyas next game is Saturday afternoon at noon at Miami (10-12 overall, 3-8 Big East). While the Hurricanes have had a similarly disappointing season, they are 9-2 at home this year and feature 6-10 junior sharpshooter Darius Rice. Miami proves a difficult challenge for a Georgetown team that only won its first road game of the year this past weekend.
“I think we are playing hard,” said Bethel. “We do have energy. It just keeps slipping away at the end.”
