Sometimes the answer to a slump is as simple as a little extra time in the gym.
Such was the case for Jessie Sapp and the rest of the Hoyas (13-8, 4-6), who defeated Rutgers 57-47 Tuesday night to snap a five-game losing streak.
Sapp broke out of a funk of his own, leading the team in scoring. The senior guard finished with 11 points and four rebounds, scoring in double figures for the first time since December 8 against Savannah State. Coming into the game shooting an uncharacteristic 25.5 percent in Big East play, Sapp rediscovered his touch, going 4-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from long range.
“They’re just shots I practice every day. They’re shots I normally make that I just haven’t been making,” Sapp said after the game. “It was just a rhythm I had to get into.”
Practice made near perfect for Sapp, who spent an hour after practice Monday working on his shot. The additional shooting made him the most accurate Hoya on the floor Tuesday.
“He put it to work and made shots today. We need Sapp there,” coach John Thompson III said. “He went through a phase where he was thinking, and he’s just got to play.”
Georgetown desperately needed Sapp’s accuracy in the first half. The team made just one of its first eight shots en route to a 10-for-29 shooting performance for the half. More troublingly for the Hoyas, top scoring threat DaJuan Summers picked up two fouls in the first four minutes of play and spent the rest of the half on the bench.
Over the past five games those kinds of misfortunes have catalyzed downward spirals for Georgetown. But Tuesday night was a different story. Instead of letting offensive woes disrupt their focus, the Hoyas simply redoubled their efforts on the defensive end. They took away any open looks and forced Rutgers into 6-for-19 shooting on the half. The Scarlet Knights turned the ball over 12 times, seven of them caused by Georgetown steals, allowing the Hoyas enough extra shot opportunities to take a 27-18 lead at halftime.
“I really liked what I saw in the first half because we shot poorly, and in the past when we missed shots we’ve not been as attentive to every other aspect of the game,” Thompson said. “We stayed attentive to every other part of the game, and I thought that was growth.”
Production came from the whole Georgetown team against Rutgers. Eight players saw 14 or more minutes of playing time, each scoring at least five points.
Sophomore Nikita Mescheriakov has recently emerged as the Hoyas’ first option off the bench. Replacing Summers early in the first half, Mescheriakov scored seven points. The young forward brought intensity and determination to the floor, which ultimately proved more crucial than his numbers on the stat sheet.
“Just his effort and energy have been terrific,” Thompson said of the Belarusian forward. “He’s been making hustle plays, and we needed that. He’s given us a boost.”
After intermission, the Hoyas came out with improvedshooting, going 11-for-20 to finish the game at 42.9 percent from the field. An opening barrage of three-pointers extended the Georgetown lead to 20 with 13:43 remaining on the clock.
But the Scarlet Knights would not fade away. Freshman guard Mike Rosario kept his team in the game almost single-handedly, scoring 17 of his 20 points in the second half as Rutgers threatened to break off a run and draw close.
“We might have gotten a little too comfortable,” Thompson said. “But at the end of the day, I’m glad we scored more points than them.”
Rutgers would never trim the Hoyas’ lead to less than nine, thanks to their continued sloppy play. The Scarlet Knights finished with 21 turnovers which resulted in 22 Georgetown points.
“You can’t turn the ball over 21 times against a good ball club and expect to be in the game,” Rutgers coach Fred Hill said. “They played better than us in every phase of the game.”
Greg Monroe recorded four of those steals and had a hand in many others. The freshman center also scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and dealt out six assists. He was consistently the best all-around player on the floor.
After the game, Thompson did not want to make any “grandiose statements” about a win he described as a “baby step.” After all, Rutgers is one of the Big East’s bottom-feeders, with its sole conference victory coming against winless DePaul. But after the painful crawl of the last five games, Georgetown will readily settle for baby steps.
