Georgetown’s surprise dissipates as ’Nova wakes up, hits gas
In an empty arena or a packed house, whether at the Pavilion, Wells Fargo Center, Verizon Center, Madison Square Garden, McDonough Arena or any other venue, Villanova-Georgetown is still special.
It’s a rivalry that conjures up many great memories like the sight of 6-10 John Thompson Jr. standing majestically on the sideline with a towel over his shoulder and a scowl on his face, a rumpled Rollie Massimino frantically waving his arms on the sidelines, Patrick Ewing throwing down a monster dunk or blocking a shot, Allen Iverson’s crossover and Dwayne McClain clutching the ball on the floor at Rupp Arena after the Wildcats upset the No. 1-ranked Hoyas in 1985 to win their first of three national championships.
And it’s a rivalry that has withstood the test of time. That was never more evident than Friday night when the ninth-ranked Wildcats made their first visit to McDonough Arena since 1981.
On paper, it was a mismatch between a Villanova team picked to finish first in the Big East and a Georgetown squad expected to finish last. Although the Wildcats came away with a 77-63 victory in front of no fans, it was not the walkover everyone expected. Villanova needed 16-2 run over the last 4 minutes, 23 seconds to blow the game open. It was a typical Big East dogfight, one that the Wildcats weren’t prepared for, at least at the start.
It was all Georgetown in the first 20 minutes. The Hoyas led by as many as 18 points and took a 46-33 cushion into the locker room at halftime. While the Wildcats (5-1, 1-0 Big East) did struggle on the offensive end, shooting 35 percent from the field overall and
32 percent from 3-point range, it was on defense where Villanova was really off its game.
“They were well prepared for everything we did in the first half and just sliced us,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We had some good shots, but didn’t make them. We couldn’t stop them. Everything we tried to do they had an answer for. They were just very well prepared.”
Georgetown (2-2, 0-1) put on an offensive clinic in the first half and made the Wildcats pay for their lack of aggression on defense by hitting 55 percent of their shots overall (18-for-31) and 50 percent from beyond the arc (6-for
12). And when the Hoyas weren’t knocking down threes or open jumpers, they were getting the ball inside to center Qudus Wahab way too close to the rim and the
6-11 sophomore took advantage to
the tune of 12 points, which was just four shy of his career high.
“Defensively, we were a step behind everything they did,” Wright said. “Offensively they were a step ahead of us and they were more prepared for us and maybe we were a little more predictable. We did not execute what we wanted to do defensively in the first half and they just sliced us.”
Another team, one that hasn’t been through these kinds of Big East battles before, would have been in panic mode at that point, but the Wildcats weren’t rattled.
“When we were in the locker room we were all talking,” said guard Collin Gillespie, who saved 12 of his team-high 18 points in the second half. “We were saying keep a great attitude, there’s a lot of time. There’s another 20 minutes to go out there and prove it
to each other. And we went out there and we knew what we had to do. We had to get stops, play hard, defend and rebound.”
Villanova showed its mettle and experience in the second half without making any major changes other than turning up the intensity of its play and buckling down defensively. The open looks that Georgetown got in the first half weren’t there, nor were the entry passes to Wahab in the post. The Hoyas shot just 26 percent after the break (8-for-30) and nine percent from deep (1-for-11). Georgetown also turned the ball over nine times which led to 11 points. The Hoyas only coughed it up three times in the first half. The interior defense was better, too. Wahab finished with 12 points and was 0-for-4 in the second half.
“We were just playing a lot
harder,” Gillespie said. “We were working hard inside to try to get position so they couldn’t get easy touches, just playing hand on the ball, making sure it was difficult to enter it. Overall, I think it was just playing harder and locking into the scout and doing what we do on the defensive end. I think we got a little lackadaisical in the first half, just kind of going up and down, we weren’t playing as hard and we weren’t locked into the scouting report, and I think we did a great job of doing that in the second half.”
That’s what veteran teams do. The Wildcats dug down to get a W against their biggest rival in the Big East.