PHILADELPHIA – It would probably be premature to call the Georgetown Hoyas “Chris Wright’s team”, but since conference play began, the sophomore guard has increasingly moved into the role of team leader, with his attitude and his play.

The past two months have been a growing experience for the Hoyas, and Head Coach John Thompson III put it perfectly when he described this big step forward saying, “We thought about regressing and then our guys held on.”

The key to holding on, and not folding as has happened too many times this season, was clutch play of Wright. His emerging leadership and confidence is the true step forward that should have Georgetown fans excited about a great win on the road.

It’s hard to imagine that a team can take a step forward while shooting 4-16 from the three-point line, giving up 13 offensive rebounds and giving away a shocking 25 turnovers, but during the first half, Georgetown was showing signs of serious growth.

The stats were certainly not pretty, but the way the Hoyas scored many of their 32 first-half points showed definite progress on offense. After four missed jump-shots in the game’s first five minutes, Georgetown seemed to remember that the Wildcats, whose tallest player is 6-foot-8 Dante Cunningham, are 14th in the Big East in blocked shots, and they began to take advantage.

Whether it was Chris Wright power-hopping into the lane for two, or Greg Monroe spinning for a bucket, the Hoyas capitalized on Villanova’s diminutive defenders for an impressive 22 first-half points in the paint, looking like a team that would not be at the mercy of their three-point field-goal percentage for wins and losses.

Defensively, the Hoyas worked to make sure the Wildcats stat line would be as ugly as their own. Georgetown played its best perimeter defense of the season and made the Big East’s fourth-best three-point shooting team go 0-for-6 from beyond the arc in the first half and 3-16 on the day. What made that three-point defense so impressive was that it did not come at the cost of a weak interior presence.

Wildcat coach Jay Wright cited the Hoyas’ inside-outside strength as a major key to the game saying, “Someone’s taking away your threes like that you gotta be able to go inside and we didn’t.”

However promising the Hoyas looked in the first half, the all too familiar stretch-run scoring-drought looked like it might cost Thompson’s squad another Big East loss.

While the Wildcats slowly chipped away at Georgetown’s hard-earned lead, the Hoyas scored only five points between the 10-minute mark and the game’s final minute. The game was quickly starting to resemble last Saturday’s crunch-time loss to Marquette, but in the game’s final minutes, a clear difference emerged. Today Chris Wright would not let his team lose.

Even though the Hoyas seemed unable to score, Wright kept his team ahead by keeping Scottie Reynolds from even glimpsing the basket. Coach Thompson praised Wright’s efforts on Reynolds, and said that his sophomore guard would, “sleep well tonight.”

Austin Freeman had two clutch rebounds in his brief return to action before fouling out, but in the game’s final minute, it was Wright who sealed the win with a pretty finger-roll layup and two huge free-throws.

Finally, when Georgetown needed to inbound the ball with 3.5 seconds on the clock to hold on to their two-point lead, it was Chris Wright who got open for the pass, and as the clock wound down to zero in Philadelphia, Wright streaked down the court with five Wildcats behind him and the Hoyas’ best Big East win in nearly two months in front.

By the time the buzzer sounded, it was Wright who the Hoyas gathered around to celebrate their biggest win in weeks and Wright commented after the game that he was working on knowing, “when I have to be in the role of leading.”

Against Marquette, DaJuan Summers took the reigns and it led to his three turnovers in the final 10 minutes en route to a loss. Today, Wright was clearly in charge, and the Hoyas very simply outplayed the Wildcats down the stretch.

After watching those two games on successive Saturdays and witnessing the disparity in results, one can’t help but wonder that even if it’s not Chris Wright’s team, maybe it should be.

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