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| Image from here. |
A story of two halves tonight at the Verizon Center, as the Georgetown Hoyas clawed back from a deficit as large as 17 points in the second half by outscoring the Marquette Golden Eagles 26-10 over the final 14 possessions of the game to win 73-70.
In fact, the first half itself was a story of two halves. In the first half of the first half, neither team could truly stop the other as Georgetown played the kind of defense last seen versus Ohio in the NCAA Tournament.
I'm not sure what kind of zone allows opposing players to stand next to the basket, but let's not play that one anymore, okay?
On offense, Georgetown stayed close by playing the Georgetown offense truly on steroids -- for the game Georgetown shot an insane 21-25 on two point shots and countered themselves by treating the basketball like a hot potato. The Hoyas would have likely scored close to ninety if they didn't spend most of the first half chucking the ball away, often to Marquette players. Marquette deserved some credit for this, of course, but Georgetown has by and large handled pressure well this year; this was a regression.
Both teams then simply flatlined, refusing to score. For Georgetown, the turnovers intensified, in part fueled by Markel Starks, who probably should not have been back in the game following getting landed on by a Marquette player. Marquette recovered and began shredding the defense that had just begun to recover.
The second half started with some back and forth, but in the end it was almost a complete reverse. It was the Georgetown defense that was forcing turnovers; it was the Georgetown offense that was hitting its three pointers. And the offense was still hitting pretty much every two it took. When the Hoyas protect the ball and actually get to shoot, the offense can be deadly.
(Wait: can this be Exhibit Z submitted as proof, alongside all the Hoyas' other comebacks, as evidence that the offense can come back from large deficits?)
But as good as the offense was in the second half, you need defense to come back just as much (if not more). And the defense was good -- sparked by fantastic play by the freshmen perimeter duo of Jabril Trawick and Greg Whittington on D. Nearly everyone played well on D in the second half but these two were phenomenal.
As evidence, I submit: Greg Whittington, 17 minutes, +16 in plus/minus. Not often you see that from a SG who scored two points.
Though every player played a role, at the end of the day, this comeback belonged to two veterans to my eye: Hollis Thompson, whose dead-eye shots sealed the deal; and Jason Clark, who willed it to start at the beginning of the second half and simply kept scoring until we won. The Hoyas' offense spreads shots but Clark used over 30% of his possessions when he was in, and did so with fantastic efficiency.
I'm going to go re-watch it right now. Yes, it's one a.m. on the West Coast. So what?
Let's run the numbers:
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Home Visitor . Georgetown Marquette . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 35 32 66 Points 29 44 73 43 27 70 Effic. 83.4 139.3 109.9 123.7 85.5 105.4 eFG% 54.5 85.7 69.8 55.7 44.1 51.9 TO% 34.5 15.8 25.6 14.4 34.8 24.1 OR% 23.1 16.7 21.1 41.2 35.7 38.7 FTA/FGA 36.4 71.4 53.5 14.3 88.2 38.5 Assist Rate 72.7 62.5 66.7 70.6 50.0 65.2 Block Rate 12.5 10.0 11.8 8.3 0.0 4.0 Steal Rate 8.6 19.0 13.6 14.4 12.7 13.6 2FG% 75.0 92.3 84.0 50.0 30.0 44.1 3FG% 20.0 50.0 33.3 45.5 42.9 44.4 FT% 62.5 53.3 56.5 80.0 80.0 80.0
more stats after the jump
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Thompson, Hollis 49 16.4 196.6 15.8 49 112.6 11.0 +5.8 Starks, Markel 31 31.9 18.6 1.8 29 110.9 6.4 -6.9 Sims, Henry 50 27.5 122.4 16.8 51 96.8 9.9 +5.2 Clark, Jason 60 31.2 136.7 25.6 58 101.4 11.8 +10.2 Lubick, Nate 21 10.3 110.6 2.4 21 145.3 6.1 -2.2 Whittington, Greg 25 9.5 121.0 2.9 27 73.4 4.0 +0.0 Hopkins, Mikael 11 43.9 125.9 6.1 10 124.8 2.5 +1.8 Porter, Otto 51 14.3 148.7 10.8 52 86.6 9.0 +3.2 Trawick, Jabril 27 21.0 63.8 3.6 28 90.9 5.1 -1.5 TOTALS 65 118.1 85.8 65 101.2 65.8 +15.5 Marquette Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts WILSON, Jamil 23 22.6 88.9 4.6 22 124.1 5.5 -1.3 JOHNSON-ODOM, Darius 60 20.2 129.1 15.6 58 118.1 13.7 +1.6 BLUE, Vander 48 9.3 123.3 5.5 49 111.7 10.9 -2.5 CADOUGAN, Junior 32 14.6 74.3 3.5 28 102.4 5.7 -1.8 CROWDER, Jae 63 22.0 121.6 16.8 62 99.4 12.3 +3.8 MAYO, Todd 44 39.1 94.9 16.3 46 105.4 9.7 +2.4 JONES, Jamail 2 0.0 - 0.0 3 33.3 0.2 -0.2 WILSON, Derrick 5 35.0 128.6 2.2 8 110.0 1.8 +0.4 GARDNER, Davante 48 18.9 125.7 11.4 49 95.2 9.3 +2.4 TOTALS 65 111.3 76.0 65 106.4 69.1 +5.0
HD BOX SCORE
Marquette vs Georgetown
01/04/12 7:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Georgetown 73, Marquette 70
Marquette Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
WILSON, Jamil 13:23 - 2 4/27 2- 3 0- 0 0- 1 3/17 1/ 8 0/22 1/23 0/ 9 0/ 8 2/ 7 4
JOHNSON-ODOM, Darius 36:38 - 1 18/65 1- 4 4-11 4- 4 15/49 1/16 0/58 2/60 0/21 0/30 2/14 2
BLUE, Vander 30:30 - 2 2/56 0- 3 0- 0 2- 2 3/35 6/17 1/49 1/48 0/20 0/20 1/15 2
CADOUGAN, Junior 18:19 - 1 2/30 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/25 2/10 0/28 3/32 1/10 1/14 0/ 9 3
CROWDER, Jae 38:23 - 1 17/70 4- 9 1- 3 6- 7 12/52 2/18 5/62 1/63 0/24 2/31 6/18 1
MAYO, Todd 27:18 - 6 16/43 3- 6 3- 4 1- 2 10/37 2/ 8 0/46 6/44 0/19 3/25 1/16 4
JONES, Jamail 01:08 + 1 0/ 2 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 2 0/ 1 0/ 3 0/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 1 0/ 0 0
WILSON, Derrick 03:08 + 1 0/ 9 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 3 1/ 3 0/ 8 1/ 5 0/ 2 0/ 0 0/ 0 1
GARDNER, Davante 31:13 - 4 11/48 4- 8 0- 0 3- 4 8/40 0/11 3/49 1/48 0/20 3/26 1/16 4
TOTALS 40:00 70 15-34 8-18 16-20 52 15/23 9/65 16/65 1/25 12/31 15/19 21
. 0.441 0.444 0.800 0.652 0.138 0.246 0.040 0.387 0.789
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Thompson, Hollis 30:04 - 2 16/53 2- 2 4- 5 0- 0 7/35 2/14 0/49 1/49 0/30 0/15 3/26 3
Starks, Markel 17:19 -10 0/26 0- 1 0- 4 0- 0 5/17 2/10 2/29 4/31 0/14 0/ 7 0/11 2
Sims, Henry 31:13 + 0 13/53 5- 6 0- 0 3- 4 6/30 5/15 2/51 4/50 2/29 1/15 4/24 3
Clark, Jason 35:53 + 4 26/70 7- 7 2- 7 6-13 14/41 1/17 1/58 1/60 0/30 0/17 5/28 3
Lubick, Nate 11:56 - 9 2/22 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/16 1/ 7 0/21 1/21 0/14 0/ 9 1/10 1
Whittington, Greg 17:32 +16 2/37 1- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/17 1/13 1/27 1/25 0/10 0/ 7 1/12 1
Hopkins, Mikael 06:04 + 3 4/15 1- 2 0- 0 2- 2 2/ 8 2/ 4 0/10 1/11 0/ 2 0/ 1 0/ 3 0
Porter, Otto 32:50 + 8 8/58 4- 4 0- 1 0- 0 5/35 3/18 2/52 1/51 1/27 1/15 4/28 1
Trawick, Jabril 17:09 + 5 2/31 0- 1 0- 1 2- 4 2/16 1/10 1/28 3/27 1/14 1/ 9 0/13 4
TOTALS 40:00 73 21-25 6-18 13-23 43 18/27 9/65 17/65 4/34 4/19 19/31 18
. 0.840 0.333 0.565 0.667 0.138 0.262 0.118 0.211 0.613
Efficiency: Georgetown 1.123, Marquette 1.077
eFG%: Georgetown 0.698, Marquette 0.519
Substitutions: Georgetown 20, Marquette 38
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 0-0, Marquette 2-2
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 12-12, Marquette 10-20
Jumpers: Georgetown 9-13, Marquette 3-12
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 2 (3.3), Marquette 8 (14.8)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 8 (88.9), Marquette 10 (111.1)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 16.8, Marquette 19.7
What do you make of that 2FG% ? I feel like we often get these great looks at layups that we just brick for no particular reason (beyond lack of commitment to finish, I suppose). Do you think last night's outstanding number was just a matter of finally living up to some of that potential and willing some of those to go in?
ReplyDeleteThat's a really great commenting feature. "460dc462-37d4-11e1-8e42-000bcdcb471e" is just my code name. You can also call me Will Bunnett.
ReplyDeleteIt's likely a combination of luck and a general height advantage across the board last night.
ReplyDeleteThe Hoyas didn't miss a layup [12/12], and while you'd expect them to make most, the reality is that 50% - 67% is a more typical shooting percentage on those. Even the dreadful Provy game saw the Hoyas make 9/20 layups - they just took and missed too many 2pt jumpers then.
P.S. - Dunno why OpenID choked on your login.