Marcus Hatten remembers Georgetown very well.
St. John’s diminutive senior guard, the second leading scorer in the Big East at 22.8 points per game and first-team All Big East selection will lead the Red Storm (20-13) into the National Invitation Tournament finals to play the Hoyas (19-14) tonight at 8 p.m.
In their Jan. 18 meeting, Hatten had scored just 15 points with 7:23 remaining at the MCI Center. Georgetown junior swingman Gerald Riley was playing spectacular defense on Hatten and the Red Storm looked down for the count, trailing 63-47.
Hatten hit two baskets in the next three minutes and Riley collected his fifth foul, but Georgetown still led comfortably 67-55 with 4:10 left. Then some Georgetown fans did something stupid, very stupid; they started talking trash.
“It all started when Riley fouled out and the crowd started talking to me,” Hatten said after the game. “I started talking back and said to them, ‘Y’all gonna make me win the game.’”
Hatten outscored the entire Hoyas team 14-5 in the remaining four minutes and the Red Storm stole the victory, 77-72. He finished with 34 points, tying his then career-high.
St. John’s has a lot of momentum heading into the finals. After winning at highly ranked Duke on March 2, the Red Storm has won seven of eight including Tuesday’s come-from-behind 64-63 victory over Texas Tech in the NIT semis. Hatten won the game for the Red Storm, stealing the ball from Tech senior guard Will Chavis and hitting the winning lay up with 16.2 seconds left.
The Red Storm also has history on its side. St. John’s has won five NIT championships, the most in the tournament’s history; its last was in 1989. The final, like the semifinal, is at Madison Square Garden in New York, which is essentially a home game for St. John’s. After the victory over Tech, fans stormed the court.
Georgetown’s lone appearance in the NIT finals was in 1993, a 62-61 loss to Minnesota, who Georgetown trounced in this year’s semifinals 88-74. That Georgetown team featured NBAers Don Reid and Othella Harrington. This year’s squad is arguably more talented, simply because of junior power forward Mike Sweetney.
The unanimous All-Big East first-team selection averaged 22.5 points during the regular season, good for 12th in the nation, as well as 10.5 boards, 13th in the country, but has stepped up his game even more in the NIT. Sweetney has averaged 24.3 points, including 32 against Minnesota, and 10.3 rebounds in the Tournament. He has been virtually unstoppable in the paint and the Hoyas will rely on his size to carry them. Sweetney scored 21 points in the loss to St. John’s and the Red Storm’s big men range from the brutish junior Kyle Cuffe and fifth-year senior Anthony Glover to useless 6-11 junior Mohamed Diakite and 7-2, 322-pound junior Curtis Johnson.
To win, the Hoyas will need to stay out of foul trouble. Besides Riley, two other Georgetown starters fouled out against St. John’s earlier in the year, including first-year forward Brandon Bowman. Bowman needs to have a solid game. His play has been sparkling recently with three straight strong games in the NIT, but he played poorly against Tennessee in the first round and against Villanova in the Big East Tournament.
Also, Georgetown will need to counter St. John’s incredible pressure defense led by lighting-quick guards Hatten and first-year Elijah Ingram. The press was instrumental in the Red Storm’s comeback against Georgetown and helped them erase a 10-point deficit with seven minutes left against Tech in the semis. One of the Hoyas’ weakest links this year has been defending against the press, and has contributed to many of their second-half collapses.
The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
