The No. 19 Georgetown Hoyas took another step backwards against No. 5 Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, moving to a disappointing 1-4 in conference play after getting throttled 72-57. Hoping to put an end to their slump against one of the best teams in the country, the Hoyas only found themselves one game further away from where they needed to be, as head coach John Thompson III put it after the game.
Georgetown shot themselves in the foot early on, going 4-for-14 from the free throw line. That, coupled with the hot hand of Pittsburgh point guard Ashton Gibbs, who made three consecutive three point attempts in a two minute stretch midway through the first half, had the Hoyas looking at a 41-24 deficit at the half.
“I felt good, I felt real good. I give the credit to my teammates,” Gibbs said. “They really set me up with screens and at the same time, passing it to me on time and I just took advantage of what the defense gave me.”
Georgetown went on a run late in the second half, but never got closer than eleven points. Once again, it was a Gibbs three that changed the momentum and silenced the Verizon Center crowd of 15,712.
“It was a big shot. We stressed that we wanted to keep a high hand in his face and force him to drive to the basket, but we didn’t do that,” senior guard Chris Wright said. “He can shoot and if you leave him open he’s going to knock down his shots.”
Although the Hoyas fixed some of the problems that had plagued them in previous games—they rebounded well against Pitt and turned the ball over less than their season average—the Panthers simply outplayed and outsmarted the Hoyas on both ends of the floor.
“We really spread it out,” Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon said. “We’re a balanced offense. We could score inside, we could score outside, and we took good shots for the most part all the way through.”
The Panthers’ dominance carried over to the defensive side of the ball as well, holding the Hoyas to 25 percent shooting from downtown and limiting Georgetown’s three starting guards to 31 points.
“We definitely have a tough backcourt and we wanted to surprise people as well,” Gibbs said. “I guess everybody thinks they’re the best backcourt in the country, but you’ve got to go out and show it.”
Pittsburgh certainly showed it. Guard Brad Wanamaker complimented Gibbs’ game high 22 points by scoring an efficient 14 points, dishing out a team leading four assists, and stealing the ball three times.
Fortunately for the Hoyas, their schedule will get a little easier with back-to-back games in the Garden State against Rutgers and Seton Hall, but it doesn’t change the fact that the team is off to a 1-4 start in conference play and has quite the hole to dig themselves out of. While many of the Hoya faithful may feel as if the sky is falling, Thompson remains hopeful.
“Yeah it’s a concern, you’re 1-4 in the toughest league in the country,” Thompson said. “The good thing is, we still have a lot of ball to be played. We’re five games into an 18 game season. We can still fight our way out of it, but is it a concern that we’re 1-4? Yes, it’s a concern. Make a few shots and it solves everything.”
The Hoyas will have to make more than a few shots in order to claw their way back to the top of the league. But their main concern right now is to stop going backward, and start moving forward.
