I think the bourbon is helping.
In a game where Georgetown was obliterated on the defensive boards, struggling to hit outside shots and saw Greg Monroe shut down as well as any time all season, the opportunity to steal a win and the Big East title was still within reach.
After trailing by nine points (50-41) at the under-8 minute media timeout, the Hoyas played stifling defense to twice tie the game, but couldn't get the stops at the end for the win. West Virginia scored 20 points on their first 21 possessions of the second half, then 8 points in their last four possessions to hang on to the win.
A few pithy comments below before I go to bed.
Let's run the numbers:
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Visitor Home . Georgetown West Virginia . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 28 25 53 Effic. 101.8 120.0 110.5 116.4 112.0 114.3 eFG% 44.2 50.0 46.8 46.7 36.0 41.8 TO% 10.9 12.0 11.4 14.5 28.0 21.0 OR% 31.2 41.7 35.7 52.9 64.7 58.8 FTA/FGA 23.1 47.6 34.0 16.7 40.0 27.3 Assist Rate 45.5 66.7 55.0 53.8 75.0 61.9 Block Rate 0.0 11.8 5.1 15.8 8.3 12.9 Steal Rate 3.6 16.0 9.5 0.0 4.0 1.9 2FG% 52.6 50.0 51.6 50.0 35.3 43.6 3FG% 14.3 33.3 25.0 25.0 25.0 25.0 FT% 83.3 90.0 87.5 80.0 100.0 93.3
This will likely come as a complete shock to those not savvy to tempo-free stats, but tonight's game was not a defensive battle. Rather, that was two teams putting up quite respectable offensive games at an absolutely glacial pace.
In fact, from a cursory scan this was the slowest-paced game Georgetown has played since . . . a 1-point win at West Virginia in 2008 (the Pat Ewing game-saving block game). The Mountaineers are a slow-paced team this year [63 poss/game, 312th nationally], but 53 possessions is positively Big-Ten-like (perhaps WVU is auditioning?).
Offensively, Georgetown didn't do too much wrong other than struggle from behind the arc in the 1st half.
Defensively, the Hoyas didn't force enough turnovers in the Lift-off half, but made up for that with a nice turnovers-forced rate in the Vesper half. Oh yeah, and they were completely obliterated on the defensive glass. That was actually worse than the beat-down Pitt put on Georgetown last season. In fact, as far as I can tell that was the worse defensive rebounding by a Georgetown team since the regular-season-ending loss to Providence way back in 2005.
And that was the single biggest reason Georgetown lost tonight. Now to be clear, offensive rebounding is the primary offensive weapon for West Virginia (2nd nationally at 42%), but tonight happened to be their high-water mark for the season. Great.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Wright, Chris 52 34.5 123.5 22.2 53 112.6 11.9 +6.1 Monroe, Greg 50 19.1 108.8 10.4 51 92.2 9.4 +1.3 Freeman, Austin 51 17.5 127.0 11.3 53 107.4 11.4 +0.9 Clark, Jason 37 15.8 28.6 1.7 38 104.7 8.0 -5.4 Vaughn, Julian 27 16.7 115.2 5.2 30 103.9 6.2 -0.3 Thompson, Hollis 24 6.0 92.9 1.3 19 111.2 4.2 -1.6 Benimon, Jerrelle 19 7.4 135.8 1.9 21 144.4 6.1 -2.1 TOTALS 52 108.9 54.0 53 107.9 57.2 -1.3 West Virginia Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts BUTLER, Da'Sean 53 28.1 117.0 17.4 52 116.0 12.1 +2.7 EBANKS, Devin 45 9.6 112.1 4.8 43 99.6 8.6 -1.6 JONES, Kevin 40 21.2 104.2 8.8 41 119.0 9.8 -1.1 BRYANT, Darryl 14 16.4 26.1 0.6 12 106.9 2.6 -1.9 SMITH, Wellington 38 22.8 144.0 12.5 35 95.0 6.7 +5.0 THOROUGHMAN, Cam 9 28.7 129.1 3.3 12 164.8 4.0 -0.8 MAZZULLA, Joe 37 16.7 107.2 6.6 37 105.7 7.8 -0.6 MITCHELL, Casey 7 28.9 122.8 2.5 6 68.7 0.8 +1.4 FLOWERS, John 13 15.0 97.3 1.9 13 144.5 3.8 -1.4 KILICLI, Deniz 9 0.0 - 0.0 9 76.2 1.4 -1.4 TOTALS 53 113.9 58.5 52 110.3 57.3 +1.5
In a game where Greg Monroe was pushed out of his spots all night and Austin Freeman struggled to score until the most desperate of times (how clutch is Austin Freeman?), Chris Wright simply willed the Hoyas back into the game over and over again. I may question his outside shooting touch, but I'll never question his heart. And his last-second layup attempt to tie the game was the correct play.
You hate to point a finger at a single player in a game like this, but Jason Clark just couldn't bring anything offensively tonight, after playing very well in the first three games of the tournament.
HD BOX SCORE
Georgetown vs West Virginia
3/13/10 9:00 pm at New York, NY/MSG
Final score: West Virginia 60, Georgetown 58
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Wright, Chris 40:00 - 2 20/58 6-12 0- 5 8- 8 17/46 7/14 1/53 2/52 0/41 2/27 1/35 2
Monroe, Greg 38:14 + 0 11/58 3- 6 0- 1 5- 6 7/44 3/17 2/51 1/50 0/39 0/25 6/33 2
Freeman, Austin 39:10 - 2 14/58 4- 7 2- 5 0- 0 12/45 1/14 3/53 0/51 0/41 1/26 0/35 1
Clark, Jason 29:11 - 2 2/38 1- 2 0- 3 0- 0 5/35 0/12 0/38 1/37 0/24 0/23 3/25 2
Vaughn, Julian 23:44 - 2 4/29 2- 3 0- 0 0- 0 3/27 0/10 0/30 1/27 1/23 2/15 2/22 5
Thompson, Hollis 16:26 + 4 6/26 0- 0 2- 2 0- 0 2/19 0/ 7 0/19 1/24 0/20 0/10 1/14 2
Benimon, Jerrelle 13:15 - 6 1/23 0- 0 0- 0 1- 2 0/14 0/ 6 0/21 0/19 0/17 1/ 9 0/11 2
TOTALS 40:00 58 16-30 4-16 14-16 46 11/20 6/53 6/52 1/41 8/27 14/35 16
. 0.533 0.250 0.875 0.550 0.113 0.115 0.024 0.296 0.400
West Virginia Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
BUTLER, Da'Sean 40:00 + 2 20/60 6-15 1- 5 5- 5 20/56 2/14 0/52 3/53 1/30 4/35 3/27 2
EBANKS, Devin 33:22 + 9 2/53 1- 3 0- 1 0- 0 4/48 1/17 0/43 2/45 1/25 4/30 5/25 1
JONES, Kevin 30:16 - 8 12/41 4- 6 1- 3 1- 2 9/43 0/ 9 0/41 2/40 0/25 3/29 1/22 3
BRYANT, Darryl 09:55 - 3 0/10 0- 0 0- 1 0- 0 1/14 0/ 4 0/12 1/14 0/ 9 1/10 1/ 8 0
SMITH, Wellington 29:49 +12 11/44 4- 6 1- 3 0- 0 9/41 1/11 0/35 1/38 2/21 6/25 4/20 4
THOROUGHMAN, Cam 06:06 - 9 2/11 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/ 9 2/ 4 0/12 1/ 9 0/ 6 1/ 4 0/ 4 3
MAZZULLA, Joe 29:11 + 6 6/46 0- 6 0- 0 6- 6 6/41 6/16 0/37 0/37 0/20 0/25 2/18 1
MITCHELL, Casey 04:34 + 2 5/ 9 0- 1 1- 2 2- 2 3/ 8 0/ 1 1/ 6 0/ 7 0/ 5 0/ 6 1/ 3 0
FLOWERS, John 09:58 - 8 2/12 1- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2/10 0/ 3 0/13 0/13 0/ 3 1/ 6 0/ 4 2
KILICLI, Deniz 06:49 + 7 0/14 0- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/10 0/ 5 0/ 9 0/ 9 0/ 6 0/ 5 1/ 4 0
TOTALS 40:00 60 17-41 4-15 14-15 56 12/21 1/52 11/53 4/30 21/35 19/27 16
. 0.415 0.267 0.933 0.571 0.019 0.208 0.133 0.600 0.704
Efficiency: West Virginia 1.132, Georgetown 1.115
eFG%: West Virginia 0.411, Georgetown 0.478
Substitutions: West Virginia 32, Georgetown 20
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: West Virginia 1-1, Georgetown 2-2
Layups/Tips: West Virginia 11-21, Georgetown 13-23
Jumpers: West Virginia 5-19, Georgetown 1-5
Fast break pts (% FG pts): West Virginia 5 (10.9), Georgetown 8 (18.2)
Pts (eff.) after steal: West Virginia 3 (300.0), Georgetown 9 (150.0)
Seconds per poss: West Virginia 26.5, Georgetown 19.1
You are right about this game (G'Town v. WVA). I was watching the game with a "potential" G'Town recruit (Marco Porcher - Oak Hill Academy) and I told him before the game that if Coach T allow WVA to control the tempo (keep score under 70 pts.) G'Town will lose... also, I told him that the guy he measures himself against on the Hoyas (Clark) will struggle because he is not tough enough (mentally & physically) and I was right again (unfortunately). G'Town needs to sign Marco, he's 6'5", 190 lbs. and have NBA range and is a skilled player from Spain who played at Oak Hill for two years (check him out on YouTube). If everyone returns (and, who knows with the climate of the NBA) the Hoyas can be a Top Five team next year with a deep, talented, and experienced team with skills!
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