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| AP photo |
The Hoyas put together 20 minutes of quality basketball in building a 12-point halftime lead, with deadly outside shooting [8/15 3FG] and surprising care with the basketball [3 TO on 33 possessions]. After relaxing in the locker room during intermission, the Hoyas came back out assuming the game was over. They forgot to get the Providence Friars to sign off on the plan.
With their shooting touch from behind the arc betraying them in the second half [0/11 3FG] and their bigs struggling mightily at the FT line [Vaughn & Lubick: 3/11], the Georgetown coaching staff was apparently out of ideas. And the habit of giving great defensive effort only in the first half over the last five games nearly was the team's undoing, as the Friars seemed able to score at will as they reduced a 14-point deficit to only 2 during an eleven possession stretch mid-way through the Vesper half.
What we saw in the second half today was the Hoyas reverting into the team that lost four straight games early in the conference schedule, just in time for their road trip up to the Carrier Dome. Should be fun.
Let's run the numbers:
. Home Visitor . Georgetown Providence College . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 33 39 72 Points 46 37 83 34 47 81 Effic. 140.8 94.6 115.9 104.1 120.2 113.1 eFG% 63.6 40.6 52.3 41.9 48.8 45.8 TO% 9.2 15.3 12.6 12.2 7.7 9.8 OR% 37.5 44.0 41.5 47.6 34.8 40.9 FTA/FGA 18.2 65.6 41.5 51.6 25.0 36.6 Assist Rate 64.7 38.5 53.3 25.0 52.9 41.4 Block Rate 8.7 11.1 10.0 0.0 4.8 2.6 Steal Rate 9.2 5.1 7.0 6.1 2.6 4.2 2FG% 50.0 61.9 56.4 43.5 44.4 44.0 3FG% 53.3 0.0 30.8 25.0 38.5 33.3 FT% 66.7 52.4 55.6 50.0 80.0 61.5
The biggest difference between halves today was the disparity in offensive efficiency, nearly 0.5 PPP. The most important driver of this difference was Georgetown's shooting accuracy, either from behind the arc or at the free throw line.
And the single biggest swing for outside shooting between halves was Jason Clark, who made all four attempts in the first half and then followed that up by missing all five attempts in the second half. After shooting horribly for most of the conference season [5/27 3FG in first 7 games], Clark had started to come around in the last three games before today [5/9 3FG]. After watching the first half, I thought he'd finally returned completely to his OOC form, but those Vesper half struggles were tough to watch.
But to be fair to Jason, his 4/9 3FG shooting effort overall looks fine in the box score if you ignore the half-to-half split. The rest of the team made 4/17 3FG for the game, including 0/6 in the second half. I think we can particularly bemoan the shots by Lubick and Benimon in the second half, although Markel Starks had a nice corner look in the flow of the offense that I was happy to see him attempt.
When we look at each half, frankly the 8/15 3FG shooting performance in the first half is actually less of a statistical fluke than the 0/11 3FG effort in the second, especially when you consider that none of those shots were desperation heaves (as far as I can recall). In the end, I think you just have to shrug about the second half shooting struggles and hope the team comes back strong the next game.
The poor free throw shooting in the second half was attributable mainly to Julian Vaughn, who made only 2/8 attempts in the half. Vaughn was shooting at 81% [=25/31] in conference coming into the game, and 73% [=53/73] on the season. To miss that many free throws is more than simply physical errors; Vaughn tightened up at the stripe. Now I'm not here to bash Julian, since his FT shooting (and overall play) in the Villanova game was probably the second most important thing leading to the Hoyas' upset win, but it will bear watching as the schedule now presents a very tough 3-game stretch.
Defensively, Georgetown simply had no answer for Marshon Brooks. He had little trouble scoring over the top of the Hoya guards, and was too quick for Nate Lubick to handle. I thought Hollis Thompson or Jerrelle Benimon would be the best chance for Georgetown, but I don't recall many possessions when either guarded Brooks. Rather, I mainly noticed that Coach Thompson used a matchup 2-3 zone for long stretches of the game, and Brooks relentlessly attacked the seams of the zone.
Hopefully, that zone-heavy defense was a one-game experiment.
But moreover, today's game marks a return to the poor defense that the Hoyas had been rolling out for the first seven games of the conference season. While no one should ever mistake this team as great defenders, the pressure to score efficiently becomes enormous when the Hoyas aren't able to stop teams from making long scoring runs in the second halves of games.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Wright, Chris 62 22.6 115.8 16.2 64 112.0 14.3 +1.2 Freeman, Austin 63 20.3 144.7 18.5 65 106.9 13.9 +4.7 Clark, Jason 58 13.3 185.0 14.2 59 117.2 13.8 +2.8 Vaughn, Julian 52 26.6 117.2 16.2 52 108.2 11.2 +3.1 Lubick, Nate 30 28.9 102.7 8.9 31 105.3 6.5 +1.1 Thompson, Hollis 41 11.3 88.3 4.1 40 103.3 8.3 -2.4 Starks, Markel 8 15.3 36.5 0.4 7 93.5 1.3 -0.8 Sanford, Vee 2 0.0 - 0.0 2 75.0 0.3 -0.3 Sims, Henry 18 14.1 42.8 1.1 18 81.9 2.9 -1.4 Benimon, Jerrelle 16 24.3 45.5 1.8 17 74.5 2.5 -0.9 TOTALS 70 117.6 81.4 71 105.9 75.2 +7.3 Providence College Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts BROOKS, Marshon 71 38.6 136.4 37.4 70 106.1 14.8 +15.4 BATTS, Kadeem 45 14.0 105.7 6.7 43 119.1 10.2 -2.2 COLEMAN, Gerard 50 20.4 71.9 7.4 48 116.9 11.2 -4.2 COUNCIL, Vincent 56 21.1 48.3 5.7 54 120.8 13.0 -8.0 DIXON, Bilal 10 0.0 - 0.0 10 131.7 2.6 -2.6 MONDY, Duke 63 16.3 144.6 14.9 61 101.4 12.4 +3.5 EVANS, Dre 18 0.0 - 0.0 18 99.9 3.6 -3.6 COTTON, Bryce 19 8.7 118.8 2.0 21 109.3 4.6 -1.2 HALL, Ray 23 7.8 217.6 3.9 25 109.8 5.5 +0.2 TOTALS 71 112.0 77.8 70 111.5 78.0 +0.1
One additional bit of frustration for me while watching the second half was that I kept waiting for Austin Freeman to take the team on his back for a four or six minute stretch, and just put the game away once and for all. Austin scored on several fast breaks, but had only a couple of attempts in the half-court offense in the second half. This may have been the result of Providence's defense, rather than simply Freeman not wanting the shot attempts. But Freeman is the Hoya fan's security blanket, and I sure would have liked to have felt a bit more secure today.
As I alluded to in the lead, Georgetown travels up to Syracuse for a tough road game against the suddenly rejuvenated Orange. That's followed by a home game against always-underrated Marquette and then up to Hartford for the UConn Kembas.
The next three games will give us the best idea yet of what Georgetown's post-season hopes should be. I don't expect more than one win in the stretch, but it's a question of simply how competitively the Hoyas play during this stretch - especially on defense - that should reveal most, if not all, of the team's character.
If they play like they did in the second half today, March will be brief.
HD BOX SCORE
Providence College vs Georgetown
02/05/11 12:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Georgetown 83, Providence College 81
Providence College Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
BROOKS, Marshon 40:00 - 2 43/81 15-21 2- 7 7-10 28/71 3/12 2/70 2/71 1/39 5/46 5/42 3
BATTS, Kadeem 21:55 - 5 4/48 2- 3 0- 1 0- 1 4/45 2/18 0/43 1/45 0/19 4/28 3/20 4
COLEMAN, Gerard 26:51 - 3 7/54 2-11 1- 2 0- 0 13/53 1/18 0/48 4/50 0/28 2/34 3/27 0
COUNCIL, Vincent 31:58 - 5 3/62 0- 9 0- 1 3- 6 10/55 5/21 0/54 0/56 0/30 1/38 2/32 2
DIXON, Bilal 05:31 - 7 0/ 8 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/11 0/ 3 0/10 0/10 0/ 5 0/ 8 2/ 6 2
MONDY, Duke 35:14 + 6 19/74 2- 3 3- 8 6- 9 11/61 1/21 1/61 0/63 0/34 2/39 4/36 4
EVANS, Dre 08:40 + 3 0/21 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/17 0/ 8 0/18 0/18 0/ 9 0/ 9 0/11 2
COTTON, Bryce 12:34 + 2 3/27 0- 2 1- 2 0- 0 4/17 0/ 7 0/21 0/19 0/11 0/11 0/14 2
HALL, Ray 17:17 + 1 2/30 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/25 0/ 8 0/25 0/23 0/20 2/17 2/22 1
TOTALS 40:00 81 22-50 7-21 16-26 71 12/29 3/70 7/71 1/39 18/44 24/41 20
. 0.440 0.333 0.615 0.414 0.043 0.099 0.026 0.409 0.585
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Wright, Chris 35:30 + 7 16/81 3- 6 2- 6 4- 6 12/55 5/24 1/64 2/62 0/45 1/32 2/42 2
Freeman, Austin 36:15 + 6 23/79 8-10 1- 5 4- 4 15/60 2/20 1/65 2/63 0/46 2/38 2/43 3
Clark, Jason 33:16 + 5 18/77 3- 5 4- 9 0- 0 14/53 2/20 1/59 0/58 0/41 1/32 2/37 2
Vaughn, Julian 29:00 + 1 14/66 4- 7 0- 0 6-12 7/45 4/18 1/52 2/52 1/38 3/29 8/34 3
Lubick, Nate 16:23 - 6 5/32 2- 5 0- 1 1- 3 6/28 1/10 0/31 0/30 0/28 5/21 4/24 3
Thompson, Hollis 23:05 + 4 3/49 0- 3 1- 3 0- 0 6/36 0/16 1/40 0/41 0/25 2/21 2/21 3
Starks, Markel 04:30 - 5 0/ 2 0- 0 0- 1 0- 0 1/10 1/ 1 0/ 7 0/ 8 0/ 5 1/10 1/ 4 1
Sanford, Vee 01:00 - 2 0/ 0 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 2 0/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 2 0/ 1 1
Sims, Henry 10:54 + 1 2/17 1- 1 0- 0 0- 2 1/20 1/ 7 0/18 1/18 1/12 0/13 3/12 1
Benimon, Jerrelle 10:07 - 1 2/12 1- 2 0- 1 0- 0 3/16 0/ 4 0/17 2/16 3/10 1/12 1/12 4
TOTALS 40:00 83 22-39 8-26 15-27 65 16/30 5/71 9/70 5/50 17/41 26/44 23
. 0.564 0.308 0.556 0.533 0.070 0.129 0.100 0.415 0.591
Efficiency: Georgetown 1.186, Providence College 1.141
eFG%: Georgetown 0.523, Providence College 0.458
Substitutions: Georgetown 29, Providence College 28
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 4-5, Providence College 0-0
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 11-20, Providence College 11-20
Jumpers: Georgetown 7-14, Providence College 11-30
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 10 (14.7), Providence College 6 (9.2)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 8 (160.0), Providence College 3 (100.0)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 17.1, Providence College 16.9
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