Georgetown welcomed the Johnnies to the now-familiar McDonough Gymnasium for a must win game for the good guys. Both teams are known for playing at a high tempo and few expected anything less than a turnover-heavy game from the Hoyas. The first surprise of the game was the announced start for Dante Harris. While at first many fans thought that Coach Ewing had made a solid strategic decision, it was later reported that Jalen Harris was suffering from back spasms that prevented him from dressing.
Dante set the tone with a corner three and kept that heat going for the rest of the game. Georgetown did a solid job feeding Qudus who finished the first half nearly on pace for a triple-double with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 blocks. St. John’s leading scorer, Julian Champagnie was kept fairly quiet and finished with a humble eight points in the first half.
On the other hand, the St. John’s press wreaked havoc on Georgetown causing several ugly turnovers in the Red Storm’s favor. Chudier Bile also struggled early on, shooting a poor 1-6 with a team worst -3 plus/minus in the first half. Don Carey remained the most efficient graduate transfer on the current roster as he quietly netted three for four from deep. The Hoyas finished the first half up two in a decent performance from both sides.
Georgetown’s biggest struggle this year has been playing the second half of each basketball game; things did not improve much tonight. The aggressive half court press paid dividends for the Red Storm as the Hoyas struggled to even bring the ball to halfcourt. St John’s capitalized and lurched to an early 55-46 lead. TJ Berger briefly stopped the bleeding with a clean triple, but the hole had been dug. He complimented his slick start with a wonderful cross court pass that led to a 4-point-play opportunity for Jahvon Blair.
But wait, more was to come!
Berger sunk yet another three ball thanks to a nice Bile steal to tie the game at 60 in the blink of an eye. A Dante steal and three points play would set the Hoyas back up 1 with 9:08 remaining in the game. Expect the Allen Iverson comparisons to begin, because Dante is wildly quick and has no fear of attacking the hoop. Things stayed mostly tied up down the stretch as the two longtime rivals traded blows.
As expected, this game came down to the very last shot.
On the last Hoyas possession, Blair got tripped up bringing the ball up the court and got tripped up. Donald found the ball on the bounce, took advantage of a pick from Wahab and snuck in a trickling layup. Immediately, the Red Storm inbounded the ball and made a hard play for the hoop down two points. Wahab hustled back for a miraculous block on Vince Cole that gave the Johnnies back the ball with a mere 0.9 seconds to play.
After a few timeouts, the Red Storm’s Greg Williams Jr. stuck by Blair on the baseline for the easy buzzer-beating layup as time expired, treating the fans to some free basketball.
Overtime proved to be nothing but electric. Carey made two critical free throws to take the lead with 33 seconds left and Wahab grabbed a must-have rebound on the Cole missed shot. In his first game with starting minutes, the young Harris took a few deep breaths and sank two from the stripe with nine seconds left to send the Hoyas up three. Ewing made the smart call to purposefully foul up three which prompted the Johnnies to return with another foul, and Dante would make one more of his two free throws to send Georgetown up three yet again with only a couple second left. The Red Storm would fail to get a shot off, and the Georgetown Hoyas would secure their first Big East win and true redemption after the Big East Tournament game last year.
Tonight will most likely go down as Dante Harris’s breakout game (22 points). Wahab is growing so well that he finished one block away from a triple double with 10 rebounds and 17 points as Harris; Ewing noticed, “Nine blocked shots: that’s Mutombo, Ewing, Mourning numbers right there.”
This game also undoubtedly demonstrated that this rendition of Georgetown basketball has solid team chemistry and the pieces to succeed both this season and going forward. Carey even spoke with confidence that this team has the pieces to make a serious run come March, “At the end of the we just found a way to win, and that’s what championship level teams do.”
