For most of the game, the story was the Hoyas’ dominant duo inside, but it was senior point guard Kevin Braswell that provided a little magic with the winning shot in Georgetown’s 70-68 victory over South Carolina last night. The nail-biter of a victory propelled the No. 19 Hoyas’ record to 6-1 and provided Georgetown with its first win of the season against a major-conference opponent.

From the opening tip it was an exciting back-and-forth game in terms of score and a bruiser in terms of play on the court, with an excruciatingly bad performance from the referees. Bad calls plagued both teams and racked up the fouls (39 total fouls called on the night), but it was a pair of questionable offensive fouls against Braswell that significantly hindered Georgetown.

Braswell picked up his fourth (and final) foul with 17:04 remaining in the second half on a phantom charge, leaving Georgetown to play the next seven minutes without its floor general. The Hoyas responded by going inside like they had done so successfully all evening long, and it paid off.

In the first half junior center Wesley Wilson hammered away at the Gamecocks down low, but when Braswell left the game after the break, it was Playboy All-American sophomore forward Mike Sweetney who took over. Sweetney and Wilson combined for 39 points on 17-for-24 shooting from the field while hauling down 14 rebounds (a conservative estimate considering that Georgetown was credited with 34 team rebounds, an unusually high total).

Georgetown’s strength inside was essential to the team’s shooting 55 percent from the field while outrebounding South Carolina 60-45. Most of this effort can be credited to the Sweetney-Wilson duo, as the contributions of forwards Courtland Freeman (no rebounds or points in 17 minutes), Victor Samnick (absent after the first half with what appeared to be an ankle injury and did not return) and Harvey Thomas (played only 10 minutes while picking up four fouls) were limited.

On the hardwood, Georgetown found itself with possession while clinging to a 32-30 lead as time ran out in the first half after a number of lead changes (of which there were 24 total on the night). Without a chance to go inside to one of the Hoya bigmen, sophomore swingman Gerald Riley stepped up and nailed a big three-pointer to give Georgetown its biggest lead of the night, 35-30.

South Carolina made some adjustments at halftime and went on a 7-0 run to open the second half, reclaiming the lead. It was at this point that fouls started to hinder the Hoyas, forcing Braswell, and later, freshman point guard Drew Hall to the bench. This resulted in junior walk-on guard Trenton Hillier seeing 10 minutes of action in which he committed no turnovers while hounding South Carolina senior point guard Aaron Lucas. Georgetown’s guards caused fits for Lucas all night, forcing him into seven turnovers after he had committed just four in the Gamecocks’ previous four games combined.

Despite playing with four fouls, Braswell returned to the court with 9:10 remaining after Hall picked up his fourth foul, running the point for Georgetown the rest of the way without picking up a fifth. With Braswell back in, the Hoyas continued to pick it up at the offensive end, at one point trading baskets with the Gamecocks in a furious stretch that resulted in nine lead changes in 11 trips down the court.

As time wound down with neither team able to take a substantial lead, the Hoyas went inside to Wilson, who was fouled and went to the line to shoot one-and-one. Shooting just 64 percent from the line on the season (but seventh in the nation with a 67 percent field goal percentage), Wilson calmly stepped to the line and nailed both to give Georgetown a two-point lead.

Stepping up at the other end after his worst game of the season, South Carolina’s Lucas drained a three-pointer to put the Gamecocks up one with just over a minute remaining.

That was it for South Carolina, though, as Braswell would score the game’s only points the rest of the way.

After Braswell hit one of two free throws, a defensive stop by the Hoyas gave Georgetown the ball with under 20 seconds remaining and the game knotted at 68. The ball was in Braswell’s hands all the way up the court, and after taking the ball to the right half of the three-point arc, he was able to juke his defender and get off a clean jumper from just inside the line.

The shot ripped cleanly through the net with 2.2 seconds left on the clock to give the Hoyas a 70-68 lead, and South Carolina’s desperation half-court shot was close but no good, giving Georgetown the victory on the road in front of a hostile crowd.

“He’s the one person I would want it in his hands at the end of the game,” Head Coach Craig Esherick said.

Braswell has given his coach no reason to question this – he is shooting 63 percent from the field and 62 percent from behind the arc over Georgetown’s last four games.

Coming off a big win on the road, the suddenly-hot Hoyas face organ State on Monday night, the first of three weaker opponents that will visit MCI Center before Georgetown plays host to No. 8 Virginia in the finals of the John Thompson Classic on Dec. 20.