Upstart Eagles knock off powerhouse Georgetown
7th time a No. 15 has ousted No. 2
PHILADELPHIA — Florida Gulf Coast sure made an entrance at the NCAA tournament.
A school that hasn’t even celebrated its first 20-year reunion yet, and is in just its second season of being eligible for Division I post-season, busted a load of brackets with a 78-68 victory over second-seeded Georgetown on Friday night in the second round of the South Regional.
The Eagles used a 21-2 run in the second half to pull away from the Hoyas and then held on in the final minute to become the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2.
Sherwood Brown scored 24 points and Bernard Thompson had 23 to lead Florida Gulf Coast, the champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
FGCU (25-10) now plays the seventh-seeded San Diego State Aztecs, 70-55 winners over No. 10 Oklahoma Friday night, in the third round on Sunday.
A night after America’s oldest university, Harvard, pulled off an upset over New Mexico, one of its youngest — FGCU’s first student was admitted in 1997 — got one that was even bigger.
The Eagles’ big run gave them a 52-33 lead with 12:28 to play. The Hoyas staged a furious rally to get within 7268 with 52 seconds left but the Eagles went 6 of 10 from the free throw line to seal it.
“In the second half, we pushed the ball, we got out, we ran, we made shots, got some alley-oop dunks to energize the crowd,” said coach Andy Enfield.
For those who don’t know FGCU, and that was probably plenty of people as of Friday afternoon, Florida Gulf Coast is a state university in Fort Myers with an enrolment of about 12,000 students.
This is FGCU’s first tournament and Georgetown’s 29th, including the 1984 national championship. But the Eagles did beat Miami earlier this season.
It was another disappointing NCAA exit for the Hoyas (25-7), who have lost to a double-digit seed in their last four appearances.
Markel Starks had 23 points for the Hoyas, a trichampion of the Big East regular season and one of the top defensive teams in the nation.
While Georgetown came in allowing 55.7 points per game, FGCU beat that number with 9:22 to play when it led 57-40. The Hoyas allowed opponents to shoot 37.6 per cent from the field, fourthbest in the country. The Eagles shot 42.9 per cent (21 of 49) and they held the Hoyas to 37.5 per cent from the field (24 of 64).
The Eagles charged at their fans when the game ended and — after some of them shook hands with Hall of Famer and TV analyst Reggie Miller — it was a celebration that could be felt all the way to back to campus.