After a dismal first half in which the Hoyas scored a season-low 18 points, the men’s basketball team put together a thrilling comeback in the MCI Center Tuesday night to defeat Rutgers 62-55. First-year forward Jeff Green led five Hoyas in double-digits with 16 points. Green also recorded his first career double-double in a Big East game with 10 rebounds.
The game was a tale of two halves as Georgetown remained scoreless for the opening six minutes. From the start, Rutgers worked to slow down the game and keep the Hoyas from running.
“I give Rutgers credit. They did a terrific job of taking us out of our flow,” said Head Coach John Thompson III. “We just couldn’t get anything going because of their defense.”
Junior forward Brandon Bowman’s jumper opened the scoring and the Hoyas began moving the ball, offering some promise. With 11 minutes left in the first half and a 10-8 lead, Rutgers called a timeout and on the ensuing possession, Rutgers sophomore guard Marquis Webb hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expired, triggering a 15-4 run for the Scarlet Knights. It was an ugly six-minute stretch as the Hoyas turned the ball over with a series of lazy passes and sloppy play.
“They had an idea of what they wanted to accomplish. They had a plan and for the most part they executed it,” said Thompson.
Thanks to 0-for-9 shooting from three-point range and 10 turnovers that led to 12 Rutgers’ points, the Hoyas entered halftime facing an eight point deficit.
“Sometimes you come into a timeout and your guys just have this glassy-eyed look, but when we found out the score, I think we felt we could get what we wanted,” said Thompson. “We just had to make stops.”
As the second half opened, it appeared that the Hoyas were both flat and frustrated. Jonathan Wallace immediately picked up a foul to open the half, which was followed by Rutgers senior guard Ricky Shields nailing a three-pointer to run the Scarlet Knights’ lead to 11. The Hoyas’ ensuing possession saw five missed shots before Bowman finally nailed a three. After the basket, Wallace picked up a technical foul in a scramble on the floor.
“I just take it as two players competing,” said Wallace. “It’s part of the game.”
The move did little to inspire the Hoyas as the two teams traded baskets for the next eight minutes.
“They were pressuring our guards and our forwards in the first half, and I felt we were walking up too much time,” said Thompson. “With the press you have to run into your offense. Doing that, we got a couple of easy baskets.”
Finally, with 12 minutes to play, the Hoyas got the spark they needed. Down 10 points, Wallace fearlessly drove into the lane, making the basket and drawing the foul. He would finish with 11 points. The play was the start of a 14-4 run that would bring the game to a tie, following junior guard Ashanti Cook’s crossover jumper from the baseline. The run was marked by big plays, notably a block by Jeff Green that led to a trifecta in transition from senior swingman Darrell Owens, bringing the crowd to its feet. Owens finished with 3-of-6 from behind the arc to finish with 14 huge.
“It’s going to be a possession by possession contest, and I think our guys did a good job of not panicking when we got down and just methodically working our way back into the game,” said Thompson. “And then we had some guys hit some pretty big shots.”
With the game tied, the Hoyas seemed intent to finish off their comeback, a task that proved too much in the team’s loss last Saturday to eleventh-ranked Connecticut. Following Cook’s game-tying jumper, Rutgers sophomore guard Quincy Douby hit a three-pointer to silence the crowd.
“Twenty four-foot turnaround, how do you stop that?” asked Thompson. “And let me tell you, he’s done it in every tape we’ve watched.”
The Hoyas, however, would not be denied, and tied the score when Green missed the back end of a one-and-one, but found the loose ball for the easy clean-up basket. With the score tied and three minutes remaining, Bowman stole the ball from Rutgers’ Shields, giving the Hoyas a chance for their first lead of the game.
After setting up the offense, Cook found Owens open on the left wing. The senior did not disappoint, hitting the shot and lifting the crowd to their feet as Georgetown took its first lead of the game.
The next big shot came two minutes later with the Hoyas leading by five. Stifling Rutgers’ defense left Georgetown with a dwindling shot clock and Green at the top of the key facing his own basket. Turning around and coolly checking the clock, the first-year knocked down the three as the clock expired to seal the game for the Hoyas.
“I think our guys did a good job of just leaning on each other and grinding it out,” said Thompson. “In our league games, it’s going to be a struggle because teams are familiar with what you’re doing.”
The game would have ended otherwise unceremoniously except for a hard foul on Owens who had gone up for a dunk and was thrown to the floor by Rutgers sophomore Byron Jones. Owens downplayed the incident after the game.
“That’s how it always is in the Big East,” said Owens. “He came up to me and apologized, so I didn’t take it as he tried to do it on purpose. It was a hard, clean foul.”
Statistically speaking, the two halves were polar opposites. After being outrebounded by a margin of 17-16 in the first half, the Hoyas held the advantage in the second half, 26-9. The first half’s dismal 33.3 percent shooting became a dazzling 52 percent for the second half. Most importantly, in spite of shooting a season-low 28 percent from behind the arc and dishing out a season low 10 assists, Georgetown finished the comeback with a win.
“Pretty, ugly, kind of cute, I’ll take a win any way we can,” said Thompson. “I think that’s what conference play is all about.”
Owens was equally generous to lavish praise on his team after what was clearly an ugly victory.
“Obviously last game we didn’t get the win, but in the second half we played a lot better than the first half, and today we were able to come out with a win,” said Owens. “There’s going to be a lot of games like this where we’ll have to pull it out in the second half.”
