With less than three minutes left and Georgetown trailing Connecticut by three, Jessie Sapp received a pass from Jonathan Wallace about a yard beyond the three-point line just to the left of the basket, and without hesitating, fired up a three. Tie game. A little more than a week later, with Georgetown behind Syracuse by five and less than two minutes remaining, Sapp again found himself with space beyond the arc and the ball in his hands, and in one fluid motion, released a high arching jump shot that found nothing but nylon. On the next play, he converted a contested layup to tie the score. As has been well documented since, Georgetown went on to win both games. In a season in which the Big East has proven itself to be especially competitive, the Hoyas, despite boasting what is likely the league’s most seasoned roster, have not been immune to the nail-biter. Yet in Georgetown’s two closest contests, it has been Sapp, perhaps more so than anyone else, that has been most impressive with the money on the line. “It is just like that Carmelo Anthony commercial,” Sapp said yesterday. “You ever seen that commercial? It’s like, `Why be scared to take that shot if I’ve taken it a thousand times?’ We’ve practiced it, we’ve been in that situation before, so we shouldn’t get nervous when that time comes.” Indeed, it is Sapp’s ability to treat the last five minutes like the first five that makes him so successful. When other players tense up, when they start to change the way they operate, Sapp remains calm. “I don’t actually look for my shot,” Sapp said, “but I look for ways to get a shot out of the offense in that certain specific time of the game, whether I’m going to drive and pitch it out to Jeremiah or try to get Roy in the post or me taking the shot or whatever.” According to his coach, John Thompson III, Sapp’s “intestinal fortitude,” is the key to late-game success. “We can word that a lot of different ways, but he’s just got the gumption and the stomach to make plays. . It wasn’t just his shots [against Syracuse], and I think he scored seven points in a row, but during that same stretch he ran down three long rebounds that were bouncing around, and all of a sudden you look and you look and [number] 21 comes up with it, and so he’s a competitor.” Sapp’s competitive streak can be attributed to his Big Apple roots. Schooled on the playgrounds of Harlem, Sapp has long embodied a never-back-down attitude and exemplified a hard-nosed style of basketball. “Jessie’s not afraid of anybody,” Wallace says. “He’s that typical New York style of point guard. That’s how he’ll approach every game. He’ll get in guys’ faces and more so get in their head. That’s the way he plays, but he doesn’t let that get him carried away or take us out of what we’re trying to do.” That sense of toughness has not just turned heads on the Hilltop; it has caught eyes around the Big East. On Thursday’s Big East Coaches Conference Call, Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun waxed poetic about the many things Sapp brings to the table: “I love him, I love him, I love him, simply put. . Maybe it’s a New York thing, but whatever it may be, his toughness rubs off on everyone else – and not a blatant toughness, not a stupid toughness – a competitive toughness that I love and respect. I consider him to be – and it’s really up to John [Thompson III] to determine who is the most valuable player on their team – but from an outside viewpoint there can’t be anybody more valuable. I think he can do something not a lot of other players can do – he transmitted his toughness to the rest of the team and it’s contagious. I think in the Syracuse game, he transmitted it to other players, and it’s an amazing characteristic and it’s why he’s, in my opinion, one of the more feared players in the league.” Sapp’s toughness compliments a versatile skill set. Sapp has been, since his first days on the Hilltop, Georgetown’s best off-the-dribble freelancer, and his teammates often give him the ball with the shot clock winding down and ask him to create his own shot. What’s more, his three-point shot has improved dramatically over the past two and a half seasons; after shooting 20.5 percent from deep as a freshman, he connected on 29.6 percent last season and thus far this year has made 38.8 percent of his threes. Sapp averages 9.3 points per game and leads the team in assists (63 in 17 games) for the second straight season. Defensively, Sapp is able to use his quickness to both contest opponents’ outside shots and to get into passing lanes for steals, another category in which he leads the team at 23. Bob Huggins, the coach of West Virginia, tomorrow’s opponent, chose Thursday to laud Sapp’s more tangible traits. “He makes perimeter shots, and I think he’s as good as anybody in our league at straight-line driving people to the basket,” Huggins said. “And I think the way that they are able to spread defenses, his ability to get into the lane really adds to what [Thompson] does.” As tough as Sapp is on the court, he is equally laid back off of it. Yesterday he entered McDonough with a wide smile across his face, and he tried to hide behind a basket until a reporter asked to speak with him. As Thompson told reporters that he expected a lot from Sapp, making sure that everyone in the gym could hear him, Sapp grinned and said, “And I expect a lot from coach too.” Sapp added his two cents on fashion as well, complimenting Thompson for the shoes he wore at the last game and injured freshman guard Chris Wright for his argyle sweater. Tomorrow, however, it will be his mental toughness, not his sense of humor, that Sapp must demonstrate. West Virginia enters play 15-4 on the season, having won all nine of its home games this year and 26 of its last 27 at the WVU Coliseum. Georgetown lost in its only trip to Morgantown under Thompson, 68-61 on Jan. 11, 2006. What’s more, in Big East play thus far, road teams are a putrid 14-36. But don’t expect Sapp to crack in a hostile environment. “I don’t like to be pressured at all,” he says, “but if it comes, I’m not going to break down.”