MEN’S HOOPS Hoyas Barely Escape Pirates Georgetown Blows Lead, Comes Back By Sean Gormley Hoya Staff Writer

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Sophomore swingman Gerald Riley drives earlier this season. He scored 14 points against Seton Hall.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – With 10 minutes remaining against Seton Hall, Georgetown faced a 10-point deficit and the reality that a loss would drag the Hoyas one step closer to the NIT. But instead of rolling over, Georgetown went on a 26-9 run and sealed an 84-77 victory with clutch free throw shooting.

“When we got down by 10 in the second half, I was really concerned,” Head Coach Craig Esherick said. “When they went up by 10, if we didn’t have a tough team we could have easily folded. [But] I’ve never questioned the toughness of this team this entire season. This game, they way they played when we were down 10, proves how tough these guys are.”

Georgetown’s trip to New Jersey had the makings of another disappointing Garden State loss, mirroring the Hoyas’ visit to Rutgers in early January, an 89-87 overtime loss. Much like that game, Georgetown (15-8, 6-5 Big East) built up a big first-half lead that turned into a deficit by midway through the second half.

Unlike against Rutgers, however, Georgetown gutted it out down the stretch and came up with a big victory coming off the four-overtime loss to Notre Dame last Saturday.

“Last week was a very emotional loss, and we just had to go back to the drawing board,” said junior center Wesley Wilson, who scored 18 points and pulled down nine boards after scoring a career-high 21 points against Notre Dame.

The game started off with Georgetown taking it to Seton Hall (12-12, 5-7 Big East) early on, building up a 38-22 lead largely thanks to excellent marksmanship from downtown – the Hoyas finished six for eight on three pointers in the first half. In addition, the crowd of 8,624 felt the home-team Pirates were getting unfairly treated by the referees, loudly booing the men in stripes as they made their way to the locker room at halftime.

“Mike and Wesley force people to foul. We could have taken 30 more free throws if I was officiating,” Esherick said, referring to the abuse Sweetney takes inside on a regular basis. In addition, the traditionally poor free-throw shooting Hoyas converted 28 of 31 at the line (and 79 percent overall in Big East play), leading Esherick to quip that “I may be a very popular speaker this summer on free-throw shooting.”

Despite the sharp outside shooting and advantage at the line, the Pirates chipped away at the lead, finishing the first half on a 14-5 run that narrowed Georgetown’s lead to seven. The Hall rode the solid play of senior center Charles Manga, who scored a career-high 23 points and pulled down 15 boards against the larger Hoya frontcourt. Georgetown was outrebounded as a whole, 41-35.

On top of this, the Hoyas were playing with an exhausted Mike Sweetney, who followed up his 49-minute, 35-point, 20-rebound performance with 40 minutes on the floor against Seton Hall as the result of forward Courtland Freeman being unavailable.

“Courtland Freeman was not able to play because he took a really bad fall in the Notre Dame game,” Esherick said about his junior co-captain. “He wasn’t really able to go, but I thought Courtland did a great job in the locker room and on the bench.”

With the Hoyas running a seven-man rotation and seemingly a step slow, the Pirates took advantage early in the second half, opening the half on a 26-9 run to cap a 15-minute stretch in which the Hoyas scored just 14 points, getting outscored 40-14 during that period.

But the Hoyas were just getting started. Georgetown exploded for a two-minute 10-0 run after facing a double-digit deficit for a first time, tying the game up and breathing new life into the battle-weary Hoyas. After trading baskets for the next few minutes, it was all Georgetown down the stretch thanks to Wilson and senior point guard Kevin Braswell, who combined to score the Hoyas’ final 17 points.

Wilson scored Georgetown’s final three baskets and when Seton Hall started fouling Georgetown in an attempt to lengthen the game, Braswell calmly sunk eight straight at the line to ice the game and cap the Hoyas’ own 26-9 run.

“Wesley made some great plays and he was very tough on the inside and got some big rebounds too,” Esherick said.

“I feel my team needs me so I just try to work harder,” Wilson said about his recent surge. “I want to win and finish the season off strong.”

“It was hard to practice [coming off such a tough loss against Notre Dame], but we made it through and practiced even harder. We knew we had to win this game. We know we have to win every game that we play. We just have to suck wind and pull off some big wins.”

Georgetown will have had three days to rest before it tries to pull off its next big win tomorrow at Villanova (Noon, WJLA-TV).

News and Notes:

All five members of the Hoyas’ starting lineup scored in double figures, the first time that has happened since Georgetown faced Grambling on Nov. 26. Despite this only happening twice, Georgetown’s entire starting lineup is averaging double-digit scoring: Sweetney (19.4 points per game), Braswell (14.4), Wilson (12.0), Bethel (10.8) and Riley (10.4) . Kevin Braswell’s three steals leaves him with 65 on the season and 333 for his career, unlikely to break the NCAA record of 375 held by Eric Murdock (Providence ’91). In addition, Providence senior guard John Linehan currently has 365 career steals and is likely to break Murdock’s record in Providence’s remaining games (four regular season plus the Big East Tournament and postseason) . Wesley Wilson has re-established himself as an inside force after a slow start to Big East play. The junior averaged just 6.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in the first half of the Big East regular season (eight games). Over his last three games, however, the 6-foot-11 center has averaged 16.3 points and 8.7 boards . Mike Sweetney had an off day scoring, putting only 12 on the scoreboard while pulling down five boards, but he set a career high in assists for the second consecutive game. After dishing out six assists in his monster game against Notre Dame, Sweetney registered a team- and career-high seven assists at Seton Hall. Esherick on Sweetney’s play at the offensive end: “Michael is capable of being a legitimate offense weapon even if he’s not scoring. He draws so many defensive players that it opens things up on the perimeter – I think that’s why we shot so well from the three-point line, because they were sagging back on Mike.” . Dick Vitale on who should be the Big East Player of the Year: “I see it as a 1-2 battle between Mike Sweetney of Georgetown, who has been brilliant on the baseline, and Pittsburgh’s Brandin Knight.” . As NCAA Tournament time approaches, Georgetown is firmly in the netherworld of bubble teams with 15 wins and an RPI rating of 49. Ten conference wins or 20 total wins will likely get the Hoyas in, but the only way Georgetown can lock up a high seed is to win the Big East Tournament, something Georgetown hasn’t done since 1989 . Speaking of RPI, Georgetown entered the NCAA Tournament last season with an RPI of 42 and a schedule strength of 105, landing a No. 10 seed. This season the Hoyas’ RPI is at 49, but the upgraded non-conference competition has boosted Georgetown’s schedule strength to 42. However it remains to be seen what seed, if any, the Hoyas will land in the NCAAs.