Like so many games in its eight-game winning streak, Georgetown found itself locked in a tight battle Wednesday night, this time with No. 12 Connecticut. The Hoyas were down one point with under three minutes to play, with the ball. A series of passes brought the ball to Austin Freeman, who, waiting on the left wing, lined up for an open three, which he dutifully launched, having made 56 of them already this season. His form was typically picturesque, and the arc was true.
But this time, the ball didn’t go in. Also not good, after a Husky basket made the lead three, was a deep three from the opposite wing by Jason Clark, he of the 42 threes on the season. Nor, for that matter, was Chris Wright’s floater in the lane, to cut the deficit to one, or his subsequent three, after the lead had been stretched to four. And so went the Hoyas’ last two minutes of Wednesday’s 78-70 defeat at Connecticut, which ended their eight-game winning streak. The loss was not an epic failure, but a series of unfortunate bounces against a high-caliber opponent in a game that was in doubt until the final minute.
Georgetown took command of the game early, leading for the first 19 minutes of the game, including by 10 at one point. The Hoyas sought baskets in transition, and foreclosed Husky second chances on the board. But the Huskies started to find gaps in the Hoya defense, particularly through national player of the year candidate Kemba Walker, who torched the Hoyas for 31 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds. Walker ran the pick-and-roll with a bigger teammate on seemingly every possession of the second half, and the Hoyas, like in last year’s tournament game against Ohio, seemed powerless to defend. The Hoyas’ inability to stop a high-scoring opposing guard has been a running theme of the last two years, and Wednesday was no exception, even if the particular opposing guard was better than most. When Georgetown switched to a 2-3 zone late in the second half, the Huskies went to Jamal Coombs McDaniel, who scored on three straight possessions on his way to 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
Even so, Georgetown stuck around. Once the Huskies built a second-half lead that stretched to nine points, the Hoyas could have been forgiven for packing it in. But Georgetown patiently chipped away at the Husky lead, staying within striking distance, then rattling off six straight points–a Freeman free-throw, a Wright three, and a lay-up by Freeman–and two stops to take a 70-69 lead with under 4 minutes to play. But Walker answered with a devastating driving hoop, and Freeman, as detailed above, couldn’t answer. Georgetown didn’t score, or lead, again.
While the Huskies shot 54 percent from the field, their best mark in conference play and indicative of Georgetown’s defensive woes, the Hoyas trudged through a 43 percent shooting night. The primary departure from the Hoyas’ usual sharp marksmanship was Freeman, who hit just 4 of 13 shots, calling into question whether, contrary to JTIII’s assurances before the game, the Hoya star wasn’t feeling some lingering effects of the sprained ankle he suffered in the Marquette game. Still, he gutted out an impressive performance in other ways, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out four assists. Wright was on-target for most of the game, hitting 7 of his first 14 and hitting five threes for the second straight game and just the second time in his career. He finished with 19 points, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds, all to go with the unenviable match-up on Walker. But–possibly tired from the sisyphean defensive assignment–he faded late, like his teammates, missing his last three in crunch time. Clark was a stellar 6 of 9 from the field, finishing with 13 points, while Hollis Thompson had a solid 10 points.
I seem to remember a quote attributed to Jeff Van Gundy, who counseled a beat writer to compose his headline while the ball was in the air. The point was, of course, that the fate of one particular shot should not change the story as written. The Hoyas’ fate Wednesday hinged on more than just one shot. Defensive ineptitude and several offensive cold streaks left Georgetown in a second-half hole from which the Hoyas had barely emerged in the waning minutes. But while Freeman’s, or Clark’s, or Wright’s late-game shots were still hanging, the game’s story was very much to be written.
Had any or all of them fallen, the story of the game once again might be the Hoyas’ road grit, manufacturing a tough victory in front of a hostile crowd. Previous wins against Villanova, Louisville, and Syracuse all had depended on several late-game shots, most memorably Freeman’s corner jumper against ‘Nova and Thompson’s wing threes in the latter two games. The victorious results of those games, and the seeming fortitude of an eight-game winning streak, mask the uncertainty while those clutch shots hung in the air. The last-minute shots didn’t fall Wednesday, as they had in those previous wins. But that doesn’t make the Hoyas’ dogged effort to climb back into the game any less admirable. The misses just changed (or didn’t change) the scoreboard ever so slightly if decisively, and the headline somewhat more dramatically.
A running theme throughout the Hoyas’ winning streak was their inability to savor victories, in light of another impending challenge. Well, they’ll have the chance to return to their winning ways soon enough: a trip to South Florida approaches on Saturday. And they’ll need to: Wednesday’s loss, combined with Louisville’s loss to Cincinnati, dropped Georgetown into a five-way tie in the loss column for third place in the conference with the Cardinals, Villanova, Connecticut, and St. John’s. To separate itself from the pack, Georgetown will need to rebound quickly.
A preview of Saturday’s comes tomorrow. Until then, you can check out the box score here.
