The last time the Georgetown won an NCAA Tournament game, Roy Hibbert was a 14-year-old first year at Georgetown Prep. Exactly five years later, the 7-foot-2-inch sophomore center has come a long way, as have the Hoyas, who used Hibbert’s imposing presence inside and an even more imposing defense to cage the No. 10 seed Northern Iowa Panthers 54-49 in front of 12,945 in Dayton, Ohio.
“My first thought was he was awful,” Head Coach John Thompson III said he thought when Hibbert came on campus two years ago. “He could barely walk. I remember our trainer in the fall of his freshmen year had him in the gym working on running. … But Coach [Pete] Carrill used to talk about some players as light bulbs. They walk in the gym and a light bulb goes off; and as a coach, you get excited to work with those players because of their willingness and their potential. Roy is one of those guys.”
Hibbert flexed his muscle and had light bulbs flashing all over UD Arena as he poured in 17 points to compliment nine boards and deliver the Hilltop faithful their first March Madness victory since a March 17, 2001, conquest over Hampton University. Northern Iowa had no answer for the 19-year-old behemoth in the paint, who was eight of 10 from the floor before fouling out with 1:11 remaining in the game.
“He’s a big factor,” Northern Iowa (23-10) senior guard John Little said of Hibbert. “He’s a huge guy in there and takes up a lot of space in the paint and it makes it more difficult for us to do our job. … And he passes the ball so well too that we have to be aware of where our guys are at all times, so we’re not caught just watching him and then they get an easy lay-up.”
The game started off with both teams shooting well, as they each went four of five from the floor in the first five minutes of the game. Hibbert followed the Hoyas’ first miss with a baseline spin and emphatic right-handed dunk at 15:58 to tie the score at nine, but Georgetown (22-9) couldn’t gain control. The Panthers took two leads of seven points each on three-pointers from Little (17 points, six rebounds) who was perfect from long range in the first half, hitting all four bombs from the exact same spot on the left wing. But another Hibbert baseline flush toward the end of the half cut Northern Iowa’s lead to four, 26-30, and gave the Hoyas momentum heading into a halftime where the Panthers seemed to lose their bite.
With Hibbert as the Hoyas’ watchdog in the paint, Northern Iowa came out hitting everything but the bottom of the net in the second half. In the first 18 minutes coming out of halftime, the Panthers were two of 18 from the field and zero of nine from three-point range. After sophomore forward Jeff Green (two points, seven rebounds) rebounded a missed lay-up by senior guard Ben Jacobsen, he dished the ball to first-year guard Jessie Sapp (six points) who nailed a wing three to put the Hoyas up 37-34. With 12:38 remaining, Georgetown had secured its first lead of the game, and the Hoyas wouldn’t let it out of their grasp.
“They do a good job of getting people in a position to have success,” Thompson said of the Panthers’ offense. “In the first half … they had open shot after open shot. They did a very good job of exploiting how we were playing defense. We made some changes in the second half and I think we did a good job of taking tough, contested shots. We were fortunate that they didn’t go in.”
The loss was only Northern Iowa’s second when leading at halftime this season, and the Panthers’ 19-point second-half output was their lowest in a half all season. This was only the fourth time all year they have been held to below 50 points.
Along with Hibbert, senior guard Ashanti Cook was the only other Hoya in double figures, scoring 11 of his 14 points in the second half. Cook nailed a stepback jumper at the free throw line with 5:07 remaining to give the Hoyas their largest lead of the day, 44-38. And after Hibbert fouled out, collecting two fouls in the span of 10 seconds, Cook smoothly nailed four free throws down the stretch to hold the Panthers down.
“He’s a senior and had a chance to sit for awhile because of fouls. A lot of times you can get composed … and get a feel for where shots are going to be when you’re sitting there watching it,” Thompson said. “In the middle stages and latter part of the second half they [Northern Iowa] tried to converge around Roy, and he did a good job of throwing it out, and we needed someone to step in and bang a shot, and Ashanti did.”
After a Jacobsen (14 points) layup cut Georgetown’s lead to three, 52-49 with five seconds remaining, Cook promptly received a long inbounds pass and slammed it home to put an exclamation point on the Hoyas’ long-awaited postseason win. While Hibbert and Cook set the tone for the Hoyas, a normally productive Green only tallied two points but characteristically had an impact in other aspects of the game, adding seven boards and three assists.
“You look at the stat sheet and you say, ‘Jeff Green had two points,’ but you felt his presence in that game,” Thompson said. “He’s one of those people you’re fortunate enough to coach who can control a game without scoring points.”
The postgame embrace between Thompson and his mammoth center invoked memories of his father sharing numerous NCAA Tournament victories with his famous big men. Thompson said he was glad that he could share this moment with his illustrious father sitting courtside, doing radio for CBS.
“It’s special to have ‘Pops’ around whether it’s an NCAA win, whether it’s the first game of the season or whether it’s a preseason scrimmage. Hopefully he’ll get to congratulate me for a lot more NCAA wins before I stop coaching,” Thompson said.
The Hoyas look to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since their run five years ago when they take on No. 2 seed Ohio State on Sunday at 4:50 p.m. in Dayton.
“The jitters are out. Now it’s time to play basketball.” Cook said. “We’re not here to participate; we’re here to win the whole thing.”
