And then came the inevitable Georgetown Big East slide. Now that the Hoyas have wrapped up their early schedule full of Mid Eastern Athletic Conference opponents with predictable ease, they have fallen on their second consecutive year of early conference troubles. After starting the season on a 10 game tear, and hanging on to knock off initial conference foe Rutgers 63-57, the Hoyas dropped their next two games, 72-64 to Boston College and 62-58 to West Virginia. The loss to the Mountaineers, in a close game on the road, was particularly devastating to the team’s conference hopes, as they had defeated West Virginia in each of the two teams’ past eight meetings.
The squad’s Big East victory over Rutgers stands as the team’s lone conference triumph thus far, and at the time appeared to be a stepping stone type win that might help them ride into greater conference success. Sophomore forward Brandon Bowman was dominant throughout the contest, recording 20 points and ripping down nine rebounds. Junior Darrel Owens, who is leading the team in shooting percentage at close to 58 percent, chipped in 14 points and also contributed with the tenacious defense that has helped him record the third most steals per game in the Big East and 25th most in the country.
After opening a 10-point lead at the half, the Hoyas struggled in the second stanza while trying to overcome foul trouble to senior guard Gerald Riley and create more quality shot opportunities to compensate for his absence. The Scarlet Knights were able to cut the Hoyas’ lead to a single bucket with three minutes remaining in the contest, and it seemed that Georgetown fans were witnessing another patented Hoya self destruction down the stretch of a close contest. Still, with tough defense and a pair of clutch free throws from both Bowman and sophomore guard Ashanti Cook, the team was able to stave off the fierce Rutgers comeback and walk away with Coach Craig Esherick’s 100th career victory at the Hilltop.
Riding the momentum from their conference opening victory, Georgetown entered their contest against Boston College three days later with confidence and a perfect 10-0 record for the first time since the 1996 season. Unfortunately, the team would leave the game without a chance to build on their undefeated streak, as the Eagles used a 17-9 run in the game’s final three minutes to pull away from the Hoyas in what had been a close match up. Despite an uncharacteristic difficulty hitting open shots, which has become more troublesome since the loss, Georgetown was able to scrape out a one-point lead heading into halftime. The team’s shooting woes continued in the second half, and BC capitalized on their own open looks late in the game to pull away from the Hoyas.
The Eagles were paced by sophomore phenom Craig Smith, who pounded Georgetown’s smaller and weaker interior for 24 points while Owens kept the Hoyas afloat with an almost superhuman performance, knocking home 20 points and roping five rebounds to lead the team.
While their loss to Boston College may have come as a disappointment, the team had to wait only four days to try for Big East redemption, travelling to Morgantown, W.V. to face off against the rejuvenated West Virginia Mountaineers. Despite the Hoyas’ loss, the Mountaineers appeared to be hurting more than Georgetown when the team’s leading scorer, guard Drew Schifino, was suspended from the team a day before the game. With their best player out of uniform, it seemed the Hoyas would be able to overcome scheming West Virginia coach John Beilin’s trapping defensive sets. Unfortunately, the Mountaineers used molasses-like Princeton ball movement to slow the pace of the game down to a crawl.
Frustrated by a lack of fast break shots, the Hoyas were out of sync early and often, recording five different periods of three minutes where the team failed to connect on a basket. The team’s shooting percentage dropped drastically for the second consecutive game, this time to 31 percent. After leading 22-15 at halftime, West Virginia used its 2-2-1 zone and a tenacious half court trap to riddle the Hoyas’ ball handlers and extend their lead to 13 points. With 4:19 left in the game, the Hoyas engaged in another desperation run that cut t the deficit to three, but missed open shots, and a flurry of free throws from West Virginia pushed the lead back to nine entering the final minute. The squad had no answer at the games end, and were forced to contemplate their missed open shots and conference difficulties on a long bus ride home. Bowman and Cook were the team’s only consistent offensive weapons, as each contributed 16 points in the loss.
Common sense would indicate that the solution to a two-game losing streak is not a road match up against the country’s best team, and last night’s game at Connecticut’s Gampel Pavilion proved that intuition can often be a great indicator of performance. UCONN, far and away the nation’s most dominant team so far this season, riddled the Hoyas throughout the game and tacked a third game onto the Georgetown’s existing losing streak. Emeka Okafor led the huskies with 27 points 11 rebounds, and five blocks and thoroughly dominated the Hoyas on the inside for UCONN whose 94-70 victory was emblematic of their dominance throughout the game.
The Hoyas return home Tuesday against St. John’s. Tip off is 7:30 at MCI Center.
