Story By: Richard Thomas
Photos By: Benjamin Rogers Jr.
Portland, OR-
Leave it up the the Georgetown Hoyas to give you a game that put you on the edge of your seats the entire game, tonight was one of those.
With this game starting almost a hour later than expected, the Hoyas offense sort of started the same way against a quick Eastern Washington team, which featured one of the best college basketball players and scorer of the year, Tyler Harvey. He dropped 27 points, but couldn’t find a way to get his team to drop any more offense to stick with the Hoyas late in the second half.
Hoyas coach John Thompson III said his players told him of the interview, and they were as eager as anybody to show — not talk about — what they could do.
“I didn’t need to stoke them up and didn’t want to calm them down,” Thompson said, then fired a friendly verbal jab back at Hayford’s failed prediction.
“Maybe it’s just me, but when I think of that, I think of Joe Namath, I think of Muhammad Ali, I think the Larry Bird and the 3-point shooting contest,” Thompson said. “The kids brought it to me and said, ‘Their coach is guaranteeing victory.’ I kind of looked down there at him. Thought he didn’t foot the bill of guys that usually guarantee victory. Our guys were fired up about that.”
The Hoyas again got the veteran leadership of D’Vauntes Smith Rivera and Jabril Trawick when they most needed it. Smith-Rivera helped settle Georgetown’s streaky shooting by hitting consecutive 3-pointers during a second-half spurt that put the Hoyas ahead 58-35.
Early foul trouble for Joshua Smith for the Hoyas spelled trouble, but bring in Bradley Hayes, which no team has really had the chance to see this season, he was able to deliver 8 big points in a stretch of 5:00 in the second half, that really sparked that 13 point run for the Hoyas.
