It’s official: Georgetown is back.
The Hoyas followed up their first Big East tournament win in 5 years with a 72-71 victory over #1 tournament seed Villanova (16-6, 11-4 BE) to secure their first trip to the conference tournament semifinal since 2015. Tomorrow at 6pm, Georgetown will face either Seton Hall or St. John’s, both of which are teams which the Hoyas have beaten before.
The season appeared to be coming to a screeching end as Villanova went on a 9-0 run to start the game and stifled every Georgetown shot attempt. A masked Donald Carey provided a desperately needed spark, doing his best Kobe Bryant impression enroute to a four point play at the 17:09 mark, cutting the deficit to five. With star point guard and Hoya killer Collin Gillespie out for the season, Villanova leaned heavily on co-Big East Player of the Year Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and three-way scoring threat Jaylen Samuels, who scored 32 points in the previous matchup. Despite shooting 3/19 (16%) from downtown in the first half, Villanova absolutely dominated Georgetown in the interior, with Robinson-Earl and Samuels blowing by Qudus Wahab at will and securing post position against smaller defenders. Georgetown went into the locker room up 37-35, thanks in large part to a triumvirate of deep Blair threes and Dante Harris’ emergent mid-range package.
Villanova appeared to reassert control over the game after the break, as Robinson-Earl continued to drive to the basket at will in the midst of a 10-0 Nova run. To make matters worse, the Wildcats began to connect from deep (6/11 in the second half), and Georgetown seemed to be at a loss defensively. With under 16:00 to play, Georgetown implemented a full court press in an attempt to disrupt Nova’s half court offense and fluster inexperienced PG Chris Arcidiacono (Yup, he’s Ryan’s little brother), who played turnover free basketball but did not make a single field goal. Harris converted an and-one off an assertive drive with 14:49 left to staunch the bleeding, but Moore stretched Nova’s lead to 61-50 with under 9 minutes to play on a big three. Georgetown tightened up their defense down the stretch, only allowing 10 total points following the aforementioned Moore three. The Hoyas steadily closed the gap, and the lead changed hands multiple times in the waning minutes of the game. Nova appeared poised to pull away after a Robinson-Earl three left the Wildcats up 70-65 with a minute and half to go. Harris drew a foul and knocked down a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 70-67, and the Hoyas tied it up with 40 seconds left on what was clearly the play of the game. Instead of jacking up a 3 to tie the game, Blair hit Wahab with a beautiful entry pass which he slammed home through contact for an and one. He knocked down the free throw to knot up the score at 70 apiece.
The Hoyas won this game at the free throw line. After Robinson-Earl drew a foul and made 1 of 2 at the line, Harris was fouled on a layup attempt with 4 seconds left and nailed both free throws to clinch the victory. The first attempt rattled around the rim before finally dropping. After the game, Harris said he had butterflies saying, “it kinda scared me a little bit, but praise God it went in.”
This man has ice in his veins. Enough said.
Georgetown set the Big East Tournament record for most free throws made without a single miss, going a perfect 23/23 at the charity stripe. Villanova went 14/22. Every single one of Georgetown’s free throws proved to make the difference, as the Hoyas won by just one point.
Today’s win would not have been possible without Harris’s effort. In by far his best game of the season, Harris scored 18 points (6/11 FG, 5/5 FT) to go with 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 0 turnovers. Wahab added 17 points (5-8 FG, 7/7 FT) and 6 rebounds. Blair and Pickett also finished with double digits, scoring 14 and 12 respectively. Bile had a rough game, going 0/4 from the field and committing 5 turnovers before fouling out. Ewing made an interesting addition to the rotation today, playing rarely seen freshman Collin Holloway for 7 minutes. Holloway did not make a big impact on the stat sheet, but had a team high +/- of 11 and played solid defense.
Villanova has been feeling the pain of Gillespie’s loss. A hobbled Justin Moore contributed 10 points in 27 minutes. Robinson-Earl finished with 26 points on 9/13 shooting, but went only 7/13 from the charity stripe. Samuels finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
After being picked to finish last in the conference, Georgetown is only two wins away from securing an NCAA tournament bid. Even if we lose tomorrow, the Hoyas are officially back on the map and are once again a program to be taken seriously.
