Empty seats were not hard to come by Saturday afternoon at the Verizon Center for what looked on paper to be an easy blowout victory for Georgetown (5-0) against the Stags of Fairfield (2-5). Only the Hoyas themselves seemed to pay the game special respect, donning fresh all-white uniforms for the first time. Unfortunately for Georgetown and the fans that did come out, the Hoyas’ pristine new digs were a bit soiled after a tough 61-49 victory.
The first half followed the trend of the early-goings of the `07-`08 season, as the undersized Stags made a point of containing senior center Roy Hibbert. Teams have had some success limiting the big man’s touches this year, but none have been as effective as Fairfield, which held Hibbert to just seven points—his first single-digit performance of the season.
“If you try to play [Hibbert] man-to-man, there’s no way,” Fairfield Coach Ed Cooley said after the game. “He’s like eight feet, 11 inches tall! So we just wanted to make it tough, we wanted to apply ball pressure and make it tough for them to throw entry passes.”
The extra attention in the paint left the offensive perimeter open for the Hoyas, as it has been all year. Georgetown failed to capitalize on the concession, throwing up fourteen three-point shots but converting just five (35.7 percent). The quick shots stifled the Hoyas’ offensive rhythm; they shot 13-26 from the floor in the first half.
The first solid Georgetown possession did not come until the ten-minute mark, when freshman guard Christ Wright penetrated and kicked out to senior guard Jonathan Wallace, who found freshman guard Austin Freeman backdoor for the easy lay-up.
Fairfield had no such trouble on the offensive end in the first half, utilizing effective screens and ball movement against Georgetown’s high-pressure zone and man-to-man sets to open up the outside for a blistering 7-11 (63.6%) from three-point range. Fairfield junior guard Jonathan Han was nearly perfect in the first half, despite the best efforts of the Georgetown student section. Amidst yells of “skanks” and “Jager bombs”—in reference to the popular YouTube video “My New Haircut”—the crisply gelled Han went four-for-five from the field for 11 first-half points.
“They have good shooters,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “If you leave Han open, he is going to make it.”
The halftime buzzer rang clearly in the silent Verizon Center as the teams entered the locker room in a dead heat, 33-33.
The beginning of the second half finally gave Georgetown fans a chance to cheer, as junior guard Jessie Sapp returned to the game after being sidelined by a hard knee to the head in the first two minutes. Unfortunately for the Hoyas, neither Sapp nor his team could rediscover any sort of offensive rhythm.
The only bright spots were Han, who added six points for a game-high 17, and Summers, who led the Hoyas with 16.
What little flow the Georgetown offense could muster was usually interrupted by the constant fouls of the tiring Fairfield defense, but the Hoyas could not translate them into points, converting an abysmal 9 of 22.
“That was horrible,” Thompson said. “That has to be fixed, it’s just giving away points.”
The play of the game came with four minutes left in the game—appropriately at the hands of Summers. Han found unmarked sophomore center Anthony Johnson, who would’ve cut the lead to just two with an easy lay-up.
“He was Roy’s man,” Summers said of the play. “Roy fell down, and I saw his man roll to the basket, so I stepped in and made the play.”
Wallace fielded the ensuing block and found sophomore guard Jeremiah Rivers for two of his nine points, ending Fairfield’s unexpected Stag party.
“He was attentive,” Thompson said of Summers. “We had a defensive lapse, and he came flying in from the weak side. That was a terrific block, and we needed it. Boy did we need that.”
“Summers really hurt us tonight,” Cooley said. “He made timely shots. Every basket he made. You guys are the number five team in the country, you’ve got to make big plays.”
Summers and senior forward Patrick Ewing Jr. added two emphatic dunks to a 61-49 victory that was anything but convincing. There’s no doubt Coach Thompson and the Hoyas will have plenty to work on in the coming days as they prepare for the Crimson Tide of Alabama on Wednesday.
“Shoot,” Rivers said of the coming week. “I’m going back to the gym right after this to get some free throws up. I have a feeling we are going to be doing that pretty heavily for the next week or so.”
