Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. And sometimes, if you’re Roy Hibbert, you are both. When Georgetown broke the huddle following a timeout with 32 seconds remaining Saturday afternoon, Hibbert was the last person the sellout crowd expected to hit a three to break a 69-69 tie and win the game. The 7-foot-2 center was probably also the one player on the floor Head Coach John Thompson III did not want to see launch an arcing three pointer with the game on the line. But when the plodding behemoth found himself with the ball in his hands standing at the top of the key with the clock ticking down, he turned, planted his enormous shoes just beyond the arc, and let go a Hail Mary floater that fell through the net and sent Verizon Center into a fevered pandemonium not felt since the Hoyas knocked off Duke two Januarys ago. Hibbert’s improbable last-second heroics allowed the Hoyas to escape with a 72-69 victory and begin their annual gauntlet of Big East play on a good (if not lucky) note. Just 13 days after converting his first-ever three pointer against Fordham, Hibbert channeled his inner Reggie Miller once more and capped a momentous comeback by a seventh-ranked Georgetown team that saw every shot it took rattle in and out – except the one that really mattered. Just like the game – in which the Hoyas’ top three point shooter went 1-7 and the nation’s top-ranked defense allowed a team to score 60 for only the second time this season – the final play was a promising representation of how this squad can prevail through adversity. The last sequence – a busted disaster of whatever Thompson drew up during the timeout – ended with the wrong player taking the wrong shot at the wrong time. But to Hibbert, everything felt right. “I’d like to, I guess, see him take that shot a few more times,” said an exasperated Connecticut Associate Head Coach George Blaney, who filled in for an ailing Jim Calhoun. While Hibbert’s heave may have been a gift from the basketball gods, the very fact that he took it speaks to his emergence as a big-time star. He is no longer just a fundamentally sound center that pours in points, blocks shots and cleans the glass. Nor is he solely the focus of the Georgetown offense anymore. Saturday afternoon, Hibbert proved that he has the confidence to be the team’s go-to guy in the clutch, a player who can put his team on his back and be counted on when it matters down the stretch. He has filled the void left by the departed Jeff Green and answered the question as to who Thompson can turn when his team needs a late-game spark down the stretch. “I thought that he was aggressive, assertive and I thought he played well,” Thompson said. “It’s league play. He knows what time of year it is. He knows he can make that shot. That’s not a fluke, that’s not a shocker, that’s not a once-in-a-lifetime thing.” To be successful in a power conference like the Big East, and to win the down-to-the-wire contests in March, a team needs a big-play guy. Last season, it was Green, who came through in the clutch against Notre Dame in the conference tourney and kept the dream alive against Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16. Now the responsibility rests on Hibbert’s shoulders, and the once-timid giant now displays the cocksure manner of a game-breaking performer. It is the final stage in Hibbert’s evolution as a basketball player. He has progressed from clumsy kid to average role player to dominant force in his four years on the Hilltop, and now he is the guy. “I think that I played okay,” Hibbert said humbly when asked if his 20 point, eight rebound performance was his most complete effort in the Blue and Gray. “I am just going to keep playing hard and be aggressive from start to finish.” Watching Hibbert bounce off the floor, arms raised and face beaming with delight while the crowd chanted his name, one gets the feeling this was the kind of moment Hibbert dreamed of last June when he decided to stick around for one more season. By the look of “Hey-whatever-works” relief on his face, it might not be exactly what Thompson envisioned, but he’ll take it nonetheless.