Recap: Syracuse 75, Georgetown 71

The Hoyas staged a furious comeback attempt late, but fell short to the Syracuse Orange tonight at the Verizon Center.  It's tough losses like this that make it plain how important those bad losses (USF, at Rutgers) become - Georgetown has effectively lost any chance at a top-4 seed in the BET.


Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            Georgetown                      Syracuse         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            36        36        72
 
Effic.         86.9     110.3      98.8       123.3      85.5     104.3  
 
eFG%           37.9      45.8      42.3        64.6      40.5      53.3  
TO%            19.6       8.3      13.9        22.4      27.6      25.0  
OR%            23.8      40.9      32.6        25.0      20.0      22.2  
FTA/FGA        34.5      38.9      36.9        58.3      76.2      66.7  

Assist Rate    33.3      43.8      40.0        69.2      42.9      60.0  
Block Rate     18.8      14.3      16.7        35.3       3.6      15.6  
Steal Rate      8.4      13.8      11.1         5.6       8.3       7.0  
 
2FG%           29.4      53.6      44.4        50.0      28.6      40.0  
3FG%           33.3      12.5      25.0        62.5      42.9      53.3  
FT%            90.0      50.0      66.7        92.9      87.5      90.0

It was a tale of two halves, with Syracuse's first half a little better than Georgetown's second half.

In the Lift-off half, Georgetown struggled to make their 2FG attempts.  The shot selection was good, but the execution was not:  2/10 on layup and tip-ins, 3/7 on 2-pt jumpers.  The poor shooting in the paint can be credited to the aggressive Syracuse frontline which collected 6 blocks in the half (5 by Wes Johnson).  But that came at a cost - by the end of the half, Johnson and R. Jackson had two fouls, and A. Onuaku had three.  Syracuse simply made shots:  5/8 from behind the arc and 13/14 from the FT line.

The story of the Vesper half was turnovers.  Georgetown managed to take care of the ball while Syracuse did not.  The latter is not surprising - probably the biggest weakness for the Orange this year is their lousy turnover rate [21.9%, 242nd nationally and last in the Big East] - but Syracuse has done a great job forcing turnovers on defense [23.4%, 37th nationally and 3rd in the Big East].  Meanwhile, Georgetown had managed to commit turnovers less than 20% of the time only once in the last six games (against Providence) coming in.  As the Rutgers debacle demonstrated, an offense will start to put up a lot of points when in avoids possessions without a scoring attempt.

The Hoyas defense was built around limiting Syracuse inside shooting and gathering rebounds.  For the half, Syracuse made only 4/14 2FGs and gathered only 3 offensive rebounds (on 15 available missed shots).

Unfortunately, the Hoyas couldn't find their shooting touch late in the game, as they made only 3/8 FTs to end the game and watched their best and last chance to take the lead clank off the rim on a wide-open 3FGA by Jason Clark.  More so than the Chris Wright miss against Rutgers, that shot felt like a part of the offensive set and Clark was completely unguarded at the arc.  It actually reminded me of the missed 3FG attempt by D. Owens in the Sweet Sixteen game vs. Florida in 2006.  Under those exact circumstances, I'd want Clark to take that shot every time.

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Georgetown            Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Wright, Chris          66   24.1  109.2   17.4      60    92.1   11.0      +4.5  
Monroe, Greg           57   30.6   97.1   16.9      46   103.1    9.5      +3.2  
Freeman, Austin        68   24.3  118.2   19.5      67   112.0   15.0      +2.8  
Clark, Jason           66   17.9   82.8    9.8      66   110.4   14.6      -4.0  
Vaughn, Julian         39    7.7    0.0    0.0      43   121.9   10.5      -7.1  
Thompson, Hollis       19   10.5    0.0    0.0      19   125.0    4.7      -3.6  
Sanford, Vee            8    0.0    -      0.0      10    65.0    1.3      -1.3  
Benimon, Jerrelle      30    7.8  115.6    2.7      34    90.7    6.2      -1.4  
Sims, Henry             7   26.9   93.6    1.8      10    94.5    1.9      -0.1  
TOTALS                 72          96.0   68.1      71   105.2   74.7      -6.6  

Syracuse              Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
JACKSON, Rick          52   25.3   98.2   12.9      52    81.2    8.4      +3.3  
RAUTINS, Andy          66   25.7  132.9   22.5      64    87.6   11.2      +9.5  
JOHNSON, Wes           71   20.0  114.8   16.3      71    86.9   12.3      +3.9  
ONUAKU, Arinze         23   12.1   55.8    1.5      23    66.9    3.1      -0.9  
TRICHE, Brandon        60   11.5  112.4    7.8      63   103.0   13.0      -2.3  
JARDINE, Scoop         18   11.1    0.0    0.0      21   111.7    4.7      -3.5  
JOSEPH, Kris           57   25.1   84.1   12.1      58   116.7   13.5      -3.1  
RILEY, DaShonte         8    0.0    -      0.0       8   159.4    2.6      -2.6  
TOTALS                 71         104.0   73.1      72    95.6   68.8      +5.1

That was an angry Chris Wright we saw out there today, and an aggressive Chris Wright is often a dangerous player. Wright did his best to keep the Hoyas within contact of the Orange in the 1st half, shooting 3/5 2FG and 2/4 3FG along with 2 steals and no turnovers.  He didn't have any assists in the half, but his teammates made only 4 FGs in the half, so he didn't exactly have a lot of opportunities.  Chris struggled a bit with his shooting in the 2nd half [2/6 2FG, 0/2 3FG, 4/5 FT] and managed to get into it a bit with Andy Rautins (double technicals), but his defense never lacked as he made life difficult for Triche and Jardine all game.

Greg Monroe picked up two quick fouls in the first 3:00 of the 1st half, and was forced to play passively the rest of the half.  He still managed to get 9 points in the half (1/1 2FG, 7/8 FTs) but Syracuse ran wild inside as Greg tried to avoid a third foul.  He also turned the ball over four times.  In the Vesper half, Monroe became more aggressive as the bigs for the Orange had their own foul troubles, shooting 5/8 on 2FGs and playing great defense.  Unfortunately, Greg was 1/6 at the FT line, and that - as much as anything - was a critical failure late in the game.

Austin Freeman is mired in a shooting slump.  Over the last three games, Freeman has shot 4/16 from behind the arc - coming into this stretch, he was shooting 58% on 3FG in conference, so I'd almost consider this a correction towards reality.  In spite of this, Austin still managed to be the most efficient Hoya today, with three assists, three offensive rebounds, only 1 turnover and one monstrous dunk.  On offense, he's really, really good.

Jason Clark is also struggling over the past three games, but his problems seem to be as much inside as out:  he's now 7/19 on 2FGs over this stretch, to go along with 2/9 3FGs.  I wonder if Freeman and Clark are starting to tire as the grind of the season is taking its toll.  I hope not.

Julian Vaughn and Hollis Thompson didn't have good games today.  Vaughn seemed to struggle against the bigger interior players for Syracuse, and Thompson seemed a bit overwhelmed by Wes Johnson's combination of size and strength.

Henry Sims was the first big off the bench today, getting some burn due to Monroe's foul troubles.  He started well (and scored the bench's only two points) before shooting a rushed airball and following with a cheap foul.  That was the end of Sims' playing time.

Jerrelle Benimon isn't a favorite here because his passive offensive play and high turnover rate means that he needs to give a supreme defensive effort to be a positive contributor (a la J. Rivers).  Tonight he came about as close to this as I can remember, as his physical defense on Wes Johnson took the star completely out of the game in the 2nd half while not committing any turnovers (although I could have done without that wild spinning drive into the lane).  Unfortunately, Dick Vitale was too busy talking about anything but the game to give him credit.

"Vee Sanford played 10 defensive possessions with good results. He produced 2 turnovers: he had a steal and he forced the bad pass that Benimon stole."

HD BOX SCORE

Syracuse vs Georgetown
02/18/10 7:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Syracuse 75, Georgetown 71

Syracuse                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
JACKSON, Rick          28:34  +21  12/62  4- 7  0- 0  4- 4  7/33  2/13  0/52  4/52  1/26  2/17  6/32   5
RAUTINS, Andy          35:39  +14  26/75  1- 2  5- 9  9-11 11/41  3/14  2/64  4/66  1/38  1/23  6/40   4
JOHNSON, Wes           39:53  + 7  16/75  1- 4  2- 4  8- 8  8/45  3/17  2/71  2/71  5/45  1/27  7/44   4
ONUAKU, Arinze         13:33  + 6   2/25  1- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/16  0/ 7  1/23  1/23  0/13  0/ 8  2/15   5
TRICHE, Brandon        34:28  + 3   8/66  2- 3  1- 1  1- 1  4/38  2/15  0/63  3/60  0/40  0/21  2/38   3
JARDINE, Scoop         11:04  -12   0/12  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/12  0/ 3  0/21  1/18  0/14  0/11  1/11   2
JOSEPH, Kris           32:07  - 9  11/57  3-10  0- 1  5- 6 11/35  2/11  0/58  3/57  0/39  1/23  1/34   1
RILEY, DaShonte        04:42  -10   0/ 3  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 5  0/ 0  0/ 8  0/ 8  0/10  0/ 5  0/ 6   2
TOTALS                 40:00       75    12-30  8-15 27-30    45 12/20  5/72 18/71  7/45  6/27 29/43  26
.                                        0.400 0.533 0.900       0.600 0.069 0.254 0.156 0.222 0.674    

Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Wright, Chris          35:37  + 1  20/66  5-11  2- 6  4- 5 17/58  1/16  5/60  0/66  0/27  2/39  2/24   4
Monroe, Greg           30:06  + 6  20/54  6- 9  0- 0  8-14  9/48  1/12  0/46  5/57  1/22  2/34  7/19   4
Freeman, Austin        38:00  + 0  21/68  7-12  2- 8  1- 1 20/61  3/15  0/67  1/68  1/29  3/41  3/26   3
Clark, Jason           36:41  -12   8/61  1- 4  1- 4  3- 4  8/58  4/20  1/66  4/66  1/28  2/40  2/24   5
Vaughn, Julian         23:05  -21   0/28  0- 4  0- 0  0- 0  4/34  0/ 9  0/43  0/39  1/18  0/26  1/14   2
Thompson, Hollis       08:39  - 5   0/17  0- 1  0- 2  0- 0  3/19  0/ 6  0/19  0/19  0/ 6  0/14  0/ 8   1
Sanford, Vee           05:07  + 3   0/11  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 9  0/ 4  1/10  0/ 8  0/ 3  0/ 5  0/ 3   0
Benimon, Jerrelle      18:30  + 7   0/40  0- 2  0- 0  0- 0  2/31  1/15  1/34  0/30  1/15  2/18  4/13   2
Sims, Henry            04:15  + 1   2/10  1- 2  0- 0  0- 0  2/ 7  0/ 3  0/10  0/ 7  0/ 2  0/ 3  1/ 4   1
TOTALS                 40:00       71    20-45  5-20 16-24    65 10/25  8/71 10/72  5/30 14/43 21/27  22
.                                        0.444 0.250 0.667       0.400 0.113 0.139 0.167 0.326 0.778    

Efficiency: Syracuse 1.056, Georgetown 0.986
eFG%: Syracuse 0.533, Georgetown 0.423
Substitutions: Syracuse 23, Georgetown 47

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Syracuse 2-3, Georgetown 2-2
Layups/Tips: Syracuse 7-12, Georgetown 13-28
Jumpers: Syracuse 3-15, Georgetown 5-15

Fast break pts (% FG pts): Syracuse 6 (12.5), Georgetown 4 (7.3)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Syracuse 2 (40.0), Georgetown 11 (137.5)
Seconds per poss: Syracuse 16.4, Georgetown 17.2

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Stats pages will be updated tomorrow.