Georgetown won its sixth in a row Saturday, beating Providence 83-81. But like the wins over Louisville and Villanova, the Hoyas didn’t make it easy on themselves or their fans, frittering away an 18-point lead and failing to shut down Friar guard Marshon Brooks, who poured in 43 points in a virtuoso performance. All the while, the Hoyas struggled to do anything right, sputtering on offense, bricking from the free-throw line, and flailing on defense. Ultimately, Georgetown’s veterans preserved the victory: the ever-steady Austin Freeman had 23 points; Julian Vaughn had a heroic 12 points and 11 rebounds, despite missing half of his 12 free-throws; Chris Wright had five assists to go with 16 points, including two last-minute free-throws (and, unfortunately, two bricks), sandwiched around two stops of Brooks, one of which triggered a bad foul call.
Mabybe the Hoyas’ failure to put away Providence isn’t that bad, taken in context. On a weekend when Connecticut and Louisvilleeach struggled to put away lower-echelon conference foes, perhaps a win was all that was needed. The win, disappointing or not, put Georgetown at 7-4 in conference after a 1-4 start. Combined with West Virginia’s loss to Villanova and Cincinnati’s loss to Pittsburgh, Saturday’s win left Georgetown as one of four teams with four conference losses, with three other teams just one loss ahead in the standings. One other four-loss team is Syracuse, which the Hoyas face Wednesday in the Carrier Dome, where they haven’t beaten the Orange in the JTIII era. Having taken in Saturday’s game in person and made a weekend of it, this recap is more than a little bit late-coming. So here are some write-ups from elsewhere on the web:
- Associated Press. ”I’ll start off with a statement this time: I felt we did an outstanding job guarding [Providence guard Vincent] Council,” Thompson deadpanned to a room full of laughter. “We held that kid to three points.” More seriously, Thompson said of Brooks: “He’s getting his, now let’s see if we can take everyone else away. If you can take everyone else away when one player’s having a special day, there’s not too many people that can beat you by themselves. He was close.”
- Washington Post. Brooks’s total (on 17-of-28 shooting) was the most in the Big East this season, the fifth highest in league history and the fourth most ever yielded by the Hoyas. But it wasn’t quite enough to derail the conference’s hottest team, which takes a six-game winning streak into Wednesday’s showdown at Syracuse. . . . “They just keep coming, keep coming, keep coming,” Thompson said of the Friars. “On top of everything else, you make your foul shots it’s a different game.”
- Casual Hoya. The Chris Wright Heart of a Champion Award: This is a tough one, since it was the first game in a long time that all three of The Hoya Trinity filled up the box score. Austin Freeman had 23 points, Jason Clark 18, and Chris Wright finished with 16 points, 5 assists, and that clutch steal to end the game. But the winner of this award is Julian Vaughn. Vaughn was outstanding against Providence, providing Georgetown with a reliable inside force throughout the entire game. Vaughn displayed some nifty post moves, threw down some ferocious dunks, and even though he missed 6 free throws, he made them in the final minutes when it really mattered. Thank God for Julian Vaughn.
- Hoya Hoops. To start the second half, Georgetown led by as many as 18 points, before Providence started clawing their way back. Georgetown’s offense grew stagnant, and the Friars continued to chip away. With five minutes to play, Providence had whittled the Hoya lead down to five points and had seized the momentum. In the final moments, behind a final surge from Brooks (including a 4-point play), Providence trailed by only one point in the final minute. Chris Wright made two free throws to re-extend the lead to three. Brooks was then fouled with 5 second to play and made both free throws to make the score 82-81. Again Wright was fouled, this time making only one of two, setting up a final possession for Providence. Of course, they gave the ball to Brooks, who was ambushed at halfcourt. The Hoya double team deflected the ball away and time expired. The Hoyas have now won six games in a row.
- Hoya Prospectus. With their shooting touch from behind the arc betraying them in the second half [0/11 3FG] and their bigs struggling mightily at the FT line [Vaughn & Lubick: 3/11], the Georgetown coaching staff was apparently out of ideas. And the habit of giving great defensive effort only in the first half over the last five games nearly was the team’s undoing, as the Friars seemed able to score at will as they reduced a 14-point deficit to only 2 during an eleven possession stretch mid-way through the Vesper half. What we saw in the second half today was the Hoyas reverting into the team that lost four straight games early in the conference schedule, just in time for their road trip up to the Carrier Dome. Should be fun.
