Anyway, the Hoyas pulled it out in the end to cap off the year with a positive.
Let's run the numbers (as I sip on some Scotch waiting for midnight):
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Home Visitor . Georgetown St. John's . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 30 31 61 Effic. 107.5 110.9 109.1 90.7 104.4 97.5 eFG% 55.6 54.5 55.1 52.1 42.9 46.6 TO% 23.5 19.6 21.5 20.2 16.3 18.2 OR% 35.7 27.3 32.0 14.3 50.0 36.8 FT Rate 7.4 59.1 30.6 16.7 14.3 15.3 Assist Rate 76.9 25.0 52.0 63.6 58.3 60.9 Block Rate 0.0 4.8 2.8 10.0 5.3 7.7 Steal Rate 10.1 3.3 6.6 10.1 6.5 8.3 2FG% 45.0 63.2 53.8 53.3 28.6 38.9 3FG% 57.1 0.0 40.0 33.3 42.9 39.1 FT% 100.0 76.9 80.0 50.0 40.0 44.4
Tonight's pace was far more deliberate than either team had been averaging coming into the game (G'town: 69.5, St. J: 68.4), and be a harbinger of a slow down for the Hoyas now that conference play is underway.
I suspect that many fans will look at the 13 turnovers and think that Georgetown did a better job taking care of the ball, but with only 61 possessions in the game, that still ends up with a >20% turnover rate for the 5th consecutive game.
In spite of some poor shooting from 2FG in the first half (3/10 on 2-pt jumpers) and too many turnovers, the Hoyas were respectably efficient on offense thanks to solid shooting from behind the arc (4/7). At the same time, they were able to limit St. John's second-chances to build a 5 point lead.
The Vesper half saw the Hoyas determined to pound the ball inside (12/16 on dunks, layup and tip-ins), but the Johnnies also made an adjustment by pounding the offensive glass to gather half of their 24 available misses (albeit three of those came in the last few seconds of the game). Georgetown should not be satisfied with the defensive effort in the 2nd half.
The game very nearly turned on a four possession stretch in the 2nd half where the Hoyas had four turnovers (at least 3 of those unforced), and watched a 9 point lead turn into a 1 point deficit (St. John's scored 13 points in 5 possessions during that stretch, and 46 points in their other 56 possessions). But instead of reverting to last year's nightmare, the Hoyas were able to get a dunk and two layups while holding the Redmen scoreless to regain a 6 point lead, which they sustained the rest of the way.
One other point to add: free throw shooting. I suspect some St. John's fans are going to look at that 4/9 FT shooting line and bemoan the fact that if only they had made the normal % of FTA, they'd have won - or at least been much closer. This argument, or course, was the same for Hoya fans last season for both games against the Johnnies - as was noted in this space. In summary using Tom's methodology, St. John's came in shooting 64% on FTs, so they effectively left 2 points at the line last night; G'town came in shooting 71% FTs, so effectively picked up 1.5 points at the line. That +3.5 points was less than the margin of victory.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Wright, Chris 59 19.7 151.7 17.6 59 91.3 10.8 +6.9 Monroe, Greg 60 30.3 107.9 19.6 60 96.7 11.6 +5.0 Freeman, Austin 56 13.6 129.2 9.8 58 93.8 10.9 +0.8 Clark, Jason 55 15.0 63.8 5.3 54 77.8 8.4 -2.1 Vaughn, Julian 40 19.7 101.0 8.0 41 69.1 5.7 +2.4 Thompson, Hollis 18 13.2 33.2 0.8 17 108.0 3.7 -2.3 Sims, Henry 22 13.1 67.7 1.9 21 82.3 3.5 -1.0 TOTALS 62 107.2 63.0 62 87.8 54.5 +10.3 St. John's Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts KENNEDY, DJ 50 17.6 117.8 10.4 50 99.8 10.0 +1.0 BOOTHE, Malik 23 14.1 16.8 0.5 24 131.0 6.3 -4.7 EVANS, Sean 34 27.5 109.4 10.2 34 88.0 6.0 +3.1 COKER, Dele 16 5.6 212.6 1.9 17 101.7 3.5 -0.3 HORNE, Paris 54 19.5 49.7 5.2 53 103.9 11.0 -5.7 HARDY, Dwight 43 21.3 95.8 8.8 43 96.4 8.3 +0.2 BURRELL, Justin 35 15.6 113.9 6.2 34 104.6 7.1 -0.2 STITH, Malik 16 17.5 69.0 1.9 16 62.5 2.0 +0.1 BROWNLEE, Justin 39 26.9 103.0 10.8 39 123.3 9.6 -0.5 TOTALS 62 92.2 56.0 62 102.8 63.7 -7.1
The first half was a bit of an encore of the Harvard Chris Wright show, as he put up 14 points (3/5 2FG, 2/3 3FG, 2/2 FT) along with 3 assists and 1 steal to go along with 0 turnovers. What may have been missed was that Wright played just as well in the 2nd half, although he only scored 7 points (2/3, 0/0, 3/3).
Greg Monroe returned to early season form by using 30% of available possessions tonight, and made only 6/16 shots (6/15, 0/1, 3/4) but lead the team with 5 assists and 4 offensive rebounds.
Austin Freeman was he usual low usage, high efficiency self, but threw in a couple of dunks for bonus points. Julian Vaughn did his lunchpail work in the trenches to score 8 points while leading the defense.
Clark, Thompson and Sims were relatively quiet on offense, but Sims and Clark had good defensive games - Sims struggled memorably during the 4 turnover stretch, but played very well in the first half, hopefully a good sign.
HD BOX SCORE
St. John's vs Georgetown
12/31/09 8:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Georgetown 66, St. John's 59
St. John's Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
KENNEDY, DJ 33:55 -12 11/46 2- 4 2- 5 1- 2 9/48 5/14 3/50 1/50 0/37 2/32 4/22 1
BOOTHE, Malik 15:57 -11 0/20 0- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/16 1/ 7 0/24 2/23 1/18 0/10 0/10 2
EVANS, Sean 22:19 + 5 9/37 4- 7 0- 0 1- 2 7/30 1/10 0/34 2/34 0/23 3/17 6/16 4
COKER, Dele 11:22 + 4 2/18 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/15 0/ 6 0/17 0/16 1/13 1/ 9 0/11 2
HORNE, Paris 34:40 - 2 4/51 0- 3 1- 4 1- 2 7/50 1/18 0/53 3/54 0/32 2/33 0/22 1
HARDY, Dwight 26:49 - 1 14/43 1- 4 4- 9 0- 0 13/47 1/13 1/43 1/43 0/26 0/30 1/17 0
BURRELL, Justin 22:31 - 9 9/27 4- 4 0- 0 1- 2 4/33 2/ 7 0/34 2/35 1/21 0/23 3/13 4
STITH, Malik 08:39 + 5 0/17 0- 2 0- 1 0- 0 3/16 3/ 7 1/16 0/16 0/ 4 0/ 9 0/ 4 1
BROWNLEE, Justin 23:48 -14 10/36 2-10 2- 4 0- 1 14/40 0/10 0/39 1/39 0/21 5/27 3/10 3
TOTALS 40:00 59 14-36 9-23 4- 9 59 14/23 5/62 12/62 3/39 14/38 17/25 18
. 0.389 0.391 0.444 0.609 0.081 0.194 0.077 0.368 0.680
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Wright, Chris 38:08 + 9 21/66 5- 8 2- 3 5- 5 11/48 4/18 1/59 1/59 0/34 0/24 2/37 1
Monroe, Greg 38:59 + 2 15/61 6-15 0- 1 3- 4 16/47 5/17 0/60 3/60 0/36 4/25 4/36 2
Freeman, Austin 37:50 +12 15/64 5- 7 1- 1 2- 2 8/48 1/19 0/58 1/56 0/33 0/24 1/37 1
Clark, Jason 34:55 + 0 7/51 2- 3 1- 5 0- 0 8/43 0/16 1/54 2/55 0/32 0/25 4/32 4
Vaughn, Julian 25:37 + 3 8/38 3- 5 0- 0 2- 4 5/32 1/11 1/41 2/40 1/23 2/19 7/28 2
Thompson, Hollis 10:54 - 2 0/17 0- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/11 0/ 6 0/17 1/18 0/10 1/ 5 2/ 9 0
Sims, Henry 13:37 +11 0/33 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/16 2/13 1/21 2/22 0/12 0/ 3 2/11 2
TOTALS 40:00 66 21-39 4-10 12-15 49 13/25 4/62 13/62 1/36 8/25 24/38 12
. 0.538 0.400 0.800 0.520 0.065 0.210 0.028 0.320 0.632
Efficiency: Georgetown 1.065, St. John's 0.952
eFG%: Georgetown 0.551, St. John's 0.466
Substitutions: Georgetown 16, St. John's 28
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 5-5, St. John's 4-5
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 13-21, St. John's 7-15
Jumpers: Georgetown 3-13, St. John's 3-16
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 8 (14.8), St. John's 2 (3.6)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 6 (150.0), St. John's 7 (140.0)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 19.4, St. John's 19.4
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As noted elsewhere (e.g. link), this was the last game that Barker Davis will write up for the Washington Times. An alum as well as a sportswriter, Barker's enthusiasm for the Georgetown basketball program was welcome, especially when it was in the doldrums early this decade. I thought this post on HoyaTalk best summarized the thoughts of many Hoya fans. Good luck, Barker!
Stats pages will be updated tomorrow. Happy New Year.
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