MEN’S BASKETBALL Hoyas Fall to Panthers By Mike Hume Hoya Staff Writer
Charles Nailen/The Hoya Freshman guard Tony Bethel defends against Panther Brandin Knight
The Georgetown men’s basketball team rallied from 17 points down in the second half to pull ahead of Pittsburgh by one point with 42 seconds remaining, but an offensive rebound and put-back by Pittsburgh’s Jaron Brown with six seconds left negated the rally and left Georgetown (12-6, 3-3 Big East) on the losing end of a 68-67 final score.
Sophomore forward Mike Sweetney scored 24 points, shooting 16-of-18 from the foul line, but the power forward’s 17th attempt of the game rimmed out, enabling the Panthers to steal the victory on Brown’s putback. A final shot by Georgetown freshman guard Drew Hall fell halfway down the hoop before bouncing out as time expired.
Julius Page led Pittsburgh (17-3, 5-2 Big East) with a team-high 18 points, including four three-pointers. Junior guard Brandin Knight contributed 11 points and seven assists.
“We did a good job getting back into that game,” Georgetown Head Coach Craig Esherick said. “We made some crucial shots at crucial points in the game.”
Georgetown took the lead with 5:09 left in the first half on a Tony Bethel three-pointer off an inbounds pass, putting the Hoyas ahead 22-21. Georgetown extended that lead to 32-21 on two free throws by freshman guard Bethel with 2:30 to go in the half. The 11-point margin would be the Hoyas’ largest of the game.
The Panthers whittled away at the 11-point lead scoring the next eight points, six of them on foul shots to pull within three points at the intermission. Pittsburgh then took the lead at 17:15 in the first half on two free throws by Brown. Junior forward Donatas Zavackas’ three-pointer with 8:39 remaining put the Panthers up by 17, 62-45.
“The key was the first half when we had the 11-point lead and they cut it to three,” Esherick said.
At the 8:22 mark, a three-pointer by sophomore swingman Gerald Riley keyed a 21-4 Georgetown run culminating in two pressure free throws by Hall with 51 seconds remaining to tie the game at 66. A steal by senior point guard Kevin Braswell gave the ball back to Georgetown, and a quick Pittsburgh foul put Sweetney on the foul line with 42 seconds to go. Sweetney made one of two, leaving the door open for Brown’s put-back off a missed three-point attempt by Brandin Knight.
The Panthers outrebounded the Hoyas 35-28, and the Georgetown backcourt accounted for 12 of the team’s 28 rebounds.
Behind Sweetney’s 24, Bethel had 14 points and five rebounds on the day, while Riley and Braswell each scored eight.
The Georgetown offensive drought was largely brought upon by Pittsburgh switching to a zone defense, preventing the Hoyas from getting the ball inside to Sweetney.
“They had been playing man-to-man all year,” Esherick said. “This is the most zone they’ve played. They built a lead with the zone, and they switched to it when they saw how effective it was at the end of the first half.”
“I wasn’t frustrated,” Sweetney said of the tightly-packed zone. “My guards were hitting their shots and I knew that the man-to-man matchups would come.”
“The thing I’m happy about is that we get them next Saturday,” Braswell said.
The Hoyas tip off against the Panthers tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Fitzgerald Field House.
