EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ—Georgetown�s past was prologue once more, as the Hoyas� storybook season continued into the Final Four following a hard-fought 96-84 win over the top-seeded Tar Heels of North Carolina.
The names hadn�t changed, but the outcome was different in the rematch of the 1982 national championship game. John Thompson Jr. and Patrick Ewing Sr., key components of the Hoyas� 1982 team, sat on opposite sidelines as spectators. Roy Williams and John Thompson III, a young assistant coach and a 16-year-old-spectator 25 years ago, are now head coaches battling for a chance at basketball glory. The only missing character �sorely missed by UNC�was a man by the name of Michael Jordan, whose game-winning jumper vaulted the Tar Heels past the Hoyas in �82.
This year�s hero was junior guard Jonathan Wallace, who capped a second-half comeback with a game-tying three-pointer with little more than 30 seconds left.
�To get a shot like that felt pretty good and it gave us confidence going into the overtime period,� Wallace said.
Georgetown�s confidence and desire never wavered from tip-off to buzzer, but from the very beginning they had their hands full with the Tar Heels.
For the Hoyas, it was critical to establish their slow, deliberate half-court tempo and prevent UNC from turning the game into a fast-paced transition battle. Early on, it appeared that Georgetown�s efficient offense would be undercut by foul trouble and their inability to control the boards.
UNC was able to get to the foul line early and often, attempting 34 free throws in the game and forcing junior center Roy Hibbert to sit out much of the first half in foul trouble. With Hibbert out of the game, UNC standout Tyler Hansbrough was dominant, scoring a game-high 26 points and grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds.
At the same time, the depth and athleticism that made the Tar Heels one of the premier teams of 2007 let their talented bench out-score the Georgetown substitutes 32-7 even as the Heels dominated the boards, scoring 23 second-chance points to the Hoyas� 11.
�They rebound extremely well,� junior center Roy Hibbert said. �They are an athletic, bouncy team. They get a lot of put backs.�
But Wallace and sophomore guard Jessie Sapp, who combined for 15 assists and only two turnovers in the game, led an efficient first-half offense and helped Georgetown almost keep up. The Hoyas shot almost 60 percent from the floor, and 67 percent from behind the arc in the first half.
�I was disappointed in our defensive play in the first half,� UNC Coach Roy Williams said after the game. �We gave up eleven lay-ups, six of them back-door cuts.�
A team can hope to beat almost anyone with stats like those, but when Georgetown jogged into the locker room at halftime, they found themselves trailing 50-44. Though frustrated, Georgetown decided to stick it out with the Princeton offense, continuing what worked for them all year rather than adapt to match the fast-paced Heels.
�We wanted to stick with our stuff because we knew it worked,� Sapp said. �We didn�t want to go into anything different.�
The major change for the Hoyas came on the defensive end. After the teams exchanged baskets throughout the half and Georgetown never cut substantially into the deficit�falling as many as 11 points behind�Thompson decided to put his team into a tight zone defense, and the tide began to turn.
Unable to get into the lane and establish the inside presence that had kept them ahead throughout the entire half, the Tar Heels were forced to throw up shots from behind the arc that just wouldn�t fall.
�I don�t think there was a single play that I diagrammed to intentionally take a three,� Williams admitted. �It was always a second or third option.�
As UNC�s shots clanked off the back-iron, Hibbert and the Hoyas began to reclaim the boards and erase their deficit.
With two minutes left, a rare Jeff Green miss was controlled and finished by Patrick Ewing Jr. to cut the lead to one. This set up the Wallace three-pointer, sending the thriller into an extra period.
�The shot came within the rhythm of our offense,� Wallace said. �We spun out and assessed the floor, [Ty] Lawson went underneath the screen and I knocked the shot down. Everything was in the sequence of the play.�
The Hoyas came into overtime stronger than ever.
�We just tried to get an early start,� Green said. �We got rebounds and kept going to our offense and getting good looks.�
They got plenty of those, storming out to a 14-0 run as the perplexed Tar Heels fell ice cold, missing 20 of their last 22 shots.
�Shots just weren�t falling,� Hansbrough said. �You know, it just didn�t go in for us late in the game.�
The result was no longer in doubt by the time freshman forward DaJuan Summers streaked down the court and slammed home a dagger, throwing the Hoya faithful into a frenzy.
After the game, Coach Thompson led the fans in a �We are Georgetown� cheer, now as much a part of his post-game routine as his mild-mannered press conferences. The Georgetown Hoyas, with a Thompson and a Ewing in tow, were on their way to their first Final Four in 22 years.
�It feels pretty good,� Thompson said. �I knew we had a chance to be here by the time this time of the year rolled around. They believed it, and that�s special.�
