Chris Wright continued his torrid recent play and sharp outside shooting Saturday, netting a season-high 26 points in leading Georgetown to a difficult 61-55 road victory over lowly South Florida. The win wasn’t pretty, as Georgetown seemed to spend about 30 of the game’s 40 minutes on defense, trying in vain to chase down South Florida’s misses, only to see the Bulls regain possession, setting the process in motion again. But Wright was masterful, making 8 of 12 from the field, all 8 from the line, continuing his streaky shooting from three by netting two of three from downtown, and chipping in 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
The Hoyas trailed for much of the first half, including by as many as seven, before (w)righting the ship in the waning minutes. Georgetown held the Bulls scoreless from Jawanza Poland’s lay-in with 7:22 remaining before intermission until Augustus Gilchrist’s bucket with 22 seconds remaining, mostly by limiting the Bulls to just one shot per possession. During that span, Georgetown scored 11 points–not exactly burning down the house–to take a 28-26 lead into the half.
After intermission, Georgetown compiled “runs” of 12-6 and 7-0 to push its lead into the double digits. But South Florida remained diligent on the boards, narrowing the Hoya advantage to just four twice in the waning minutes. But Wright’s perfection from the line put the game on ice, and Georgetown left South Florida with a win.
Here’s what others are saying:
Washington Post. “Chris can take over a game any number of ways, and today it was his scoring,” Coach John Thompson III said. “We were a little sluggish in the first half. But [Wright] got us going at the start of the second half, in the middle of the second half and on down until the end.” Wright’s outburst was necessary because Freeman, the Hoyas’ leading scorer, was held without a point in the first half and a season-low four points on 2-of-10 shooting. Freeman did, however, lead Georgetown (21-6, 10-5 Big East) in rebounding against the Bulls, who dropped their sixth straight game and fell to 8-20, 2-13.
ESPN.com/AP. When the senior guard was asked if there are moments when he feels he has to try to take over games, Thompson interrupted and cracked: “When he gets out of bed.” It was the only time Wright, who was 8 of 12 from the field and made six free throws in the final 29.7 seconds, was stopped all night.”It’s good to have players that know how and when to help each other, to pick each other up and to cover for each other. … There’s going to be different people’s turn on different nights, and tonight it was Chris,” Thompson said.
Hoya Prospectus. The stat that most Hoya fans will probably take away from last night’s game is the 17-7 offensive rebounding margin that the Bulls enjoyed. There are a couple of problems with stat, that have nothing to do with Georgetown’s rebounding effort: Last night’s game is just another data point towards the great “rebounding margin is dead” revolution. Sure, USF gathered ten more offensive rebounds than the Hoyas, but they also missed a ton more shots. The Bulls grabbed those 17 off. rebounds on 37 available misses [46%]. It was bad, but the Hoyas have allowed worse this season, at Rutgers. The Bulls made their bones on offensive rebounds in the first half, gathering 12 in the Lift-off half. But they were only able to convert those 12 second chances into 9 points. The gaudy rebounding stats just weren’t a big help to them; their care with the ball [3 TOs on 28 possessions] was the bigger problem for the Hoyas.
Casual Hoya. The Hoyas maintain their position at 3rd in the Big East with ND and second place within striking distance and a mass of contenders nipping at their heels. Georgetown returns to DC for a 2 game home stand beginning with the defensive minded Bearcats who are fighting to make the NCAAs.
Georgetown returns home for two games at the Phone Booth in the coming week: Wednesday’s contest against tournament hopeful Cincinnati, and Saturday’s showdown, on Senior Day, against Syracuse. Coverage of those games follows later in the week.
