Rollie and his Wildcats shocked Hoyas
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Underdog Villanova, shooting 79 percent from the field, denied Patrick Ewing and top-ranked Georgetown a second consecutive NCAA basketball title with a 66-64 victory at storied Rupp Arena.
Georgetown had won 17 consecutive games and completed the season with a 35-3 record and a 121-23 record in the four-year career of the 7-foot Ewing, a four-time AllAmerican. Villanova (25-10) was beaten twice by the Hoyas in the regular Big East Conference season, 52-50 in overtime, and 57-50, and Georgetown entered the game a 9-point favorite.
“No one thought we could do it, but I did,” Villanova coach Rollie Massimino shouted afterward. And the rotund coach and his unranked crew from the Philadelphia suburbs had plenty of heroes to go around.
Dawyne McClain hit two free throws and Harold Pressley 1 of 2 to provide the margin of victory, with Georgetown’s Michael Jackson completing the scoring with a field goal with four seconds remaining.
McClain, hitting 5 of 7 field goals, paced Villanova with 17 points and 6-foot-9 Ed Pinckney, who battled Ewing in the pivot all night, scored 16.
The Wildcats also hit 22 of 27 free throws and matched the Hoyas on the boards with 17 rebounds. And they limited Ewing, the Hoyas’ AllAmerican center, to 14 points.
Georgetown was trying to become only the seventh team and the first since UCLA in 1973 to repeat as NCAA champions. They were being rated among the greatest teams of all time, after breezing through the final part of their schedule and looking stronger with each game.
But Villanova, which finished in a third-place tie in the Big East Conference with Syracuse, began a sixgame winning streak in the tournament, knocking off other ranked teams such as No. 2 Michigan and No. 5 Memphis State in a national semifinal.
Their upset victory was akin to that of N.C. State, which won the NCAA title two years ago as an overwhelming underdog. But that N.C. State team finished with one more victory against its 10 losses, and the 16th ranking in the final pretournament poll. All Villanova had to show was hope as it entered its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament, a competition they had never won.
The Wildcats pulled ahead, 29-28, at halftime and after Ewing hit an opening jumper in the second half, they went up, 36-30, with Harold Jensen’s basket, a three-point play by Pinckney and a jumper by Gary McLain.
McClain’s three-point play kept them up, 41-36, but Georgetown came back and went ahead on David Wingate’s jumper, 42-41, with 9:49 remaining.
The lead changed hands five times, the final one on a jumper by Pinckney, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player. McLain hit two free throws for a 49-46 lead.
Again, the Wildcats went ahead by five on a Pinckney jumper, but Georgetown came back with six consecuitve points. Wingate’s drive put the Hoyas ahead, 54-53.
Pinckney then lost the ball trying to drive against Ewing and the Hoyas went into a spread offense. But Horace Broadnax, attempting to pass to Bill Martin, threw the ball off a Villanova player and it bounced off Broadnax’s feet.
Villanova then hit six consecutive points, with Jensen hitting a jumper, Pinckney two free throws and Jensen two more free throws for a 59-54 advantage with 1:24 remaining.
Broadnax then made a basket but Jensen, a reserve sophomore guard who played most of the game, connected for two more free throws.
McClain then missed a free throw, snapping his string of 20 consecutive foulshot tosses in the tournament, and Jensen also missed the front end of a oneand-one.
Ewing’s jam brought Georgetown to 61-58 with 41 seconds left, but McClain then came through with two more free throws. A Wingate field goal pulled the Hoyas within three but McClain then hit another one-andone with 18 seconds left for a 65-60 edge.
Michael Jackson scored for Georgetown before Pressley went to the line for two free throws and made only one.
Ewing , the AP player of the year, hit 7 of 13 shots from the field but grabbed only five rebounds. Wingate had 16 points, hitting 8 of 14 from the field.
The Hoyas shot 52 percent and went to the freethrow line only eight times, connecting on six of them. Villanova, meanwhile, shot an incredible 90 percent from the field in the second half.
Villanova’s hot shooting overcame 17 turnovers forced by the relentless Georgetown defense, which pressed and trapped virtually all the way. Pinckney, a senior, hit on 5 of 7 from the field.