Georgetown fought off a resiliant Villanova squad by refusing to give up the lead in the final 17 minutes.
DaJuan Summers and Dante Cunningham lead their teams with 16 and 13 points respectively.
The game was pretty sloppy, couldn’t believe their were 45 turnovers, and the shooting in the first half was just atrocious.
Georgetown held the Wildcats to their lwest point total of the season with stifling defense.
It might be hard to believe, but Georgetown hasn’t had a quality win (sorry Rutgers and USF) since January 14, when it took down then No. 8 Syracuse. Saturday gives them their last regular season opportunity to take down a ranked opponent, as the Hoyas travel to Philly to face No. 10 Villanova.
Georgetown has lost 9 of 11 since that Syracuse game, likely playing their way out of the NCAA tournament. But there’s still a matter of pride involved, and whatever shred of hope remains. Not to mention the implications for the Big East tournament. Neither team has its seeding determined, with the Wildcats fighting for a top four spot and two-round bye, and Georgetown jockeying for position among the bottom half of the conference. The game could also serve as a preview: if the season ended today, Georgetown and Villanova would meet in the second round.
It won’t be easy for the Hoyas to take this one from the Wildcats. Besides being on the road, where Georgetown is just 2-6, Villanova has something the Hoyas sorely lack: experience. The Wildcats start three seniors and two junior; the Hoyas have two upperclassmen who play.
I’m not going to discount a desperate Georgetown team’s chances in this one though. I think the Hoyas go as DaJuan Summers goes. The junior forward’s recent decline has mirrored the team’s losing slide. If he can shoot and score like he did earlier in the season, Georgetown stands a chance in the Wachovia Center.
…for next year that is. Not to write off this season just yet (I’ll be back with a preview of tomorrow’s Villanova game later), but for disappointed Georgetown fans it looks like there is reason to believe the future is bright. No one denies that there is a lot of talent on this current Hoyas squad, but its youth and inexperience seem to have kept it from achieving its full potential.
With Jessie Sapp as the team’s sole contributing senior, Georgetown won’t suffer too much attrition from graduation. The question marks have been whether the team’s two stars, freshman Greg Monroe and junior DaJuan Summers, would leave for the NBA. Monroe declared his intentions to stay before the Syracuse game. And at a media event earlier today, Summers did not hesitate to respond when asked about his future plans.
“I’ll be here next year,” he said.
Summers has struggled in the last few games for the Hoyas, including a season low four points on 1-of-8 shooting against Louisville. But this is still the player who was named to the preseason Wooden watch list. Given another offseason to work on his game, he would be an invaluable asset for next year’s team.
Of course nothing these players say now is binding. Coach John Thompson III emphasized today that these decisions are made after the season’s over. But if both Monroe and Summers stick around Georgetown will have nine of its top ten players returning, not to mention incoming freshman Hollis Thompson, who has already enrolled and is practicing with a team. If experience really has been the problem this year, next year’s squad would be a force to be reckoned with.
It’s nothing radical to say, but this pretty much ends any hopes that Georgetown had for the NCAA tournament. Besides the simple mathematics of being 14-12 and 5-10 in conference, their performance today showed that the Hoyas don’t deserve a place in the dance.
After a first half where Louisville showed that they might merit a place in the Final Four, Georgetown took the opportunity in the second half to show they belong in the NIT. They had the momentum coming out of the locker room, finishing on a 7-0 run, and Louisville gave them chances in the opening minutes of the half. It took the Cardinals almost three minutes to get on the board after the break, a period during which the Hoyas went 1-for-4 and squandered three Louisville turnovers.
After shooting 70% in the first half, the Cardinals began to come back to earth. But the Hoyas managed just 31.3% shooting in the second half, including a number of missed layups and a crucial missed dunk by Chris Wright. Georgetown didn’t make a field goal in the last three minutes of the game, allowing a once respectable margin to balloon to 18.
Georgetown is a very young team, and as Rick Pitino pointed out after the game, young teams can’t win consistently in the Big East. Maybe the Hoyas have a few more wins in them, but they’ll need more than few in New York to change the committee’s mind.
This is obviously a must-win for the Hoyas, and right now it doesn’t look good. Georgetown was lucky to cut the deficit to ten in the last few minutes of the half, because Louisville was ready to run away with this one.
The Cardinals simply could not be stopped for most of the first half. They shot 70% from the field, including 6-of-6 three pointers. It didn’t matter what Georgetown did, Louisville could nail any shot seemingly at will.
Louisville’s defense was just as impressive, as their suffocating full court press hassled the Hoyas all half, leading to nine turnovers.
Georgetown has forced the Cardinals to make the same number of errors, but obviously the shooting percentages make all the difference. The Hoyas hit a respectable 52.6% of their shots, but there was no way they could keep up with Louisville.
The Hoyas might take a sliver of hope into the second period, having gone on a 7-0 run to end the half. But those were some of the first signs of life from a team that for awhile looked like it was ready to surrender. If they can find the needed intensity in the locker room (and Louisville shows its shooters are human), the Hoyas just might make this one interesting.
At halftime today Georgetown celebrated the 25th anniversary of it’s 1984 national tournament team, the former champions providing fitting juxtaposition to the foundering 2009 squad. With this loss the Hoyas have all but dashed their tournament hopes, needing to win out to reach the 9-9 conference record many see as a prerequisite to an NCAA bid.
Unlike many recent games, Georgetown played capable basketball against Marquette, giving themselves a good chance to take down the Golden Eagles. But it is too late for the Hoyas to be playing adequate basketball; they must be dominant if they want to save this season.
At the beginning of the game both teams came out shooting lights out. Georgetown shot 53.1% in the first half, including 63.6% from three, and Marquette was even better, connecting on 60% of its attempts.
As the 1984 team took the court at halftime the score stood tied at 44-44, and things looked good for the Hoyas. They showed resilience and took momentum into the locker room, fighting back from a seven point deficit with six minutes to play.
The second half needless to say was not so positive for Georgetown. Even though the Hoyas outshot Marquette, they lost their advantage on the boards, allowing eight offensive rebounds, and turned the ball over eight times.
Up against a veteran Golden Eagles squad, Georgetown’s inexperience was glaringly obvious. Marquette seniors Jerel McNeal (22 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds) and Wesley Matthews (23 points) took over the game when they needed to, while star freshman Greg Monroe all but disappeared when the Hoyas needed him most, going without a field goal attempt for 17 minutes in the second half.
Georgetown does not have much time to reflect on the loss, with Louisville coming to the Verizon Center on Monday. But if the Hoyas can’t figure out how to beat the Cardinals, they may as well give up their tournament hopes.
Georgetown picked up a confidence boosting win over USF tonight, 65-40. The Hoyas coasted to victory, leading wire to wire, and looked as if they had put their recent woes behind them.
USF did not score its first point until over five minutes had run off the clock. Despite the Bulls’ offensive struggles, Georgetown could not pull away early, and the score stood at 15-13 with 8:03 to play in the first half. However, over the next four minutes the Hoyas went on a 16-0 run to break the game wide open. USF was never really a threat after that.
Sophomore guard Chris Wright continued his stellar play from the Syracuse game, leading all scorers with 17 points while dishing out 5 assists. Freshman center Greg Monroe posted his second consecutive double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Hoyas should be happy to return home with a win, because now they must prepare for the three game gauntlet of Marquette, Louisville, and Villanova. With the way the season’s gone thus far, Georgetown probably needs to win two of those three if it hopes to make the NCAA tournament. With subsequent wins over St. John’s and DePaul the Hoyas would then be 9-9 in conference play and hopefully able to breathe a bit easier during the Big East tournament.
The Hoyas averted a Valentine’s Day massacre, but there was no miracle occurring in the Carrier Dome as they fell 98-94 in overtime.
Down by 16 with just eight minutes to play, Georgetown looked like it was throwing away a game that had been evenly played in the first half. But then the Hoyas found the tenacity that they have been missing in most of their recent games. After some excellent shotmaking (and a few lucky breaks), the comeback was capped off by a long, contested three by Chris Wright to tie the game at 83. With only a few seconds remaining, Syracuse guard Johnny Flynn made one of his few mistakes of the day, allowing DaJuan Summers to intercept a pass, sending the game into overtime.
Chris Wright was the Hoyas’ leader today, scoring a career high 25 points to go along with six assists and five rebounds. He hit clutch shots all game, nailing threes or penetrating inside when Georgetown needed a score the most. But in overtime Wright ultimately had to head to the bench when he picked up his fifth foul with 50 seconds remaining. No other Hoya was able to repeat Wright’s heroics as time ran down.
At the end of the game it was the Orange guards who made the difference. Eric Devendorf finished with 23 points, including eight in overtime. Jonny Flynn was the hero for Syracuse, scoring 20 of his 25 points after halftime and shooting 15-of-16 from the free throw line. His 4-of-4 performance from the line in the extra period kept Georgetown from having a chance to win. Flynn also had 13 assists for the double-double.
Two other players had double-doubles: Syracuse’s Arinze Onuaku had 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Georgetown freshman Greg Monroe had 16 points and 11 boards.
Now 13-10, 4-8 in the Big East, the loss today made Georgetown’s already dire situation even worse. USF on Tuesday is unquestionably a must-win for the Hoyas, but the real moment of truth comes next weekend, when they play two games in three days against Marquette and Louisville. If Georgetown does not show it can still beat a quality opponent, it can give up any hope of dancing come March.
With both Georgetown and Syracuse potentially playing to keep their tournament hopes alive, it should come as no surprise that the two rivals go into the break separated by just one point.
Plenty of storylines in this one. The first for Georgetown was obviously the shift in the starting lineup, with John Thompson III replacing Nikita Mescheriakov replacing Jessie Sapp. Mescheriakov wasn’t particularly effective, but he continued to contribute the energy and the hustle plays that have earned him his playing time.
It wouldn’t be Georgetown-Syracuse without some confrontation and controversy, and we got both at the eight minute mark. After a Syracuse miss, Hoya junior DaJuan Summers was in position for the rebound when he took a hard elbow to the back of the head from the Orange’s Kristof Ongenaet. After about three minutes of review the officials called it a flagrant technical and Ongenaet was ejected.
Both teams got themselves going on the strength of outside sharpshooting. Syracuse’s Andy Rautins leads all scorers with 11 points, including 3-of-6 from three. Georgetown also jumped out to a quick lead on consecutive threes from Austin Freeman and Summers.
Chris Wright has probably been the Hoyas most important player so far. He’s 4-of-6 with nine points, including a couple of difficult drives when Georgetown really needed a basket. He also has three assists.
The second half just got underway, and fans should be in for a treat if both teams keep up their quality of play.
Heartbreaking loss for the Hoyas, who succumbed to Cincinnati 64-62 after leading by as much as 12 in the second half.
After digging out of an early hole to finish the first half up by five, Georgetown came out of the locker room on fire and quickly extended the lead. But the Bearcats proved to be a resilient foe, breaking off a 10-0 run at the seven minute mark to pull ahead by two. Cincinnati’s comeback was aided in no small part by the fact that the Hoyas made just one field goal in the last seven minutes of regulation.
With a minute left in the second half the Bearcats tied the game on an Alvin Mitchell trey. A Greg Monroe turnover gave Cincinnati the opportunity to win in regulation but a missed three-pointer, followed by a DaJuan Summers long range miss, sent the game into overtime.
The entire game had been physical and tough-fought, with bodies falling to the floor far more often than fouls were being called. Overtime did not bring out any more elegant play, with neither team making a field goal in the extra period.
The game was decided at the free throw line, and Georgetown could not hit their foul shots when it counted. After shooting over 80% from the stripe in regulation the Hoyas were 3-of-6 in overtime, all three misses coming from Monroe. The freshman finished with 13 points, six rebounds, and five steals, but was just 4-of-12 from the field.
Deonta Vaughn led the Bearcats in scoring with 16 points, while also adding nine rebounds and six assists.
Georgetown got the ball with 13 seconds left in overtime, down by two with a chance to tie or win. The Hoyas squandered the opportunity, never making any progress inside and settling for a desperate jumper as time expired.
The Hoyas are now 13-9, 4-7 in the Big East. Any talk of a turnaround after beating Rutgers was obviously premature. With a week off before travelling to Syracuse the team has its longest break since December. Maybe the extended time off is what Georgetown needs to return to its early season form.