Story By: Richard Thomas
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
It may be a fair assessment to say that the Georgetown Hoyas have had their share of close games this season, problem is that in the world of NCAA basketball, close just doesn’t cut it, not here, not too many places. This time, getting close to Villanova, didn’t help the Hoyas do much more than scare the Wildcats into finding a way to close the game in the final minute of the game.
Junior guard Josh Hart scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, and senior Ryan Arcidiacono scored nine of his 15 points in the final minutes as the Wildcats survived a scare to beat Georgetown 55-50 on Saturday for their 21st consecutive Big East victory.
The Hoyas got another solid effort from D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, but just could not find a way to close the game and a rebound with less than 20 seconds remaining would have given the Hoyas the ball and one more chance, but Jesse Govan dropped the ball on the end line out of bounds and basically ending a chance the Hoyas had to take this game to overtime.
‘We knew he has the ability to just go off,” Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright said of Smith-Rivera, Georgetown’s leading scorer this season. ”(Bridges) is only a freshman and he loves to defend. He’s really long, he’s got some great mobility and we put him on some really good players. Smith-Rivera is probably one of the best and I thought he did a great job on him.”
The Hoyas fell to 1-3 this season against ranked opponents. They beat then-No. 14 Syracuse at home Dec. 5.
“We got some shots at point-blank range in the paint that didn’t go in,” John Thompson III said. “We got some open looks for the guys we wanted open looks for that didn’t go in. That was a Big East game right there. Neither team was pretty. I don’t think it was anything tactical. We got the looks we wanted. The ball didn’t go in.”
“Great road victory for us,” Wright said. “We have so much respect for Georgetown, the program and this team. We knew it was going to be this kind of game. They wouldn’t go away. I thought we made a couple good runs where we had chances to put them away, and they just kept coming back, hitting big shots.”
The Hoyas need to get their act together as their hopes for impressing the NCAA selection committee are dwindling quickly. They make a trip to Xavier on Tuesday in hopes of rebounding and getting a couple more solid Big East victories before ending the month of January.
