Derrickson sinks clincher
February 10, 2018 - After letting a 14 point, early second half lead be erased and finding Georgetown tied at 80 with 31 seconds remaining today, some in the Hoya Nation felt a since of déjà vu, as their team has let at least five games they should have won end in defeat. It’s not that there wasn’t energy in a Capital One Arena crowd of over 11 thousand, but 2017-18 season history didn’t easily point to victory.
Junior forward Marcus Derrickson had different designs; he smoothly sank a three pointer, while being fouled, just north of four seconds remained on the clock. Though he missed the charity stripe attempt and Seton Hall managed a clean three point look with only a second to go, G’Town celebrated victory.
Head coach Patrick Ewing described Derrickson’s final shot and three ball as “Just a great look”, one born from some misdirection/manipulation and ball sharing. “He knocked it down”.
Increasing his long ball’s drama was the fact Derrickson had a shot blocked by senior Pirate swingman Desi Rodriguez with just 39 clicks on the clock, ending up as two points for his teammate, senior guard Khadeen Carrington (game best nine assists).
“Honestly, my mentality is just to make it up, make up that turnover by getting a rebound if my teammates had shot the last shot…I just wanted to make it up” said Derrickson, who finished with 22 points and a game/career best 18 rebounds, of his mindset then. “If I got the shot I knew I would be confident shooting it”.
Georgetown, which sank 51.6% of overall attempts and 31.6% from distance needed everything Derrickson produced, as Rodriguez and sophomore guard Myles Powell went off during the second half, the former logging 14 of his 24 points then, the latter scoring all but two of his game tops 25 points in the last 20 minutes.
Powell made six of his 12 three pointers then, while Rodriguez had the same ratio on regular attempts, several in exciting, fastbreak form.
“He’s a good ball player. A few times we did not get back with him”, admitted Ewing, who broadened his critique, adding “Or we scored and they were able to get back in transition, and get some baskets. We have to do a much better job of finding them in transition”. Seton hall, which logged 45.6% from the field and 40.9% on three pointers was assigned 10 of their 12 fastbreak points in the second stanza.
Helping Derrickson, among others, were rookie wing Jamorko Pickett (18 points) and junior pivot Jessie Govan’s, who contributed 11 points and seven rebounds.
Govan and the team took turns addressing Angel Delgado, the Pirate’s load of a senior center, one finishing with 12 points and 12 rebounds, a formidable foe Derrickson defined as “probably the strongest player in our league”. As such “We just wanted to make it tough for him”.
Could taking those punishing ‘L’s as recently as the team’s two most recent games, home against Providence and at Xavier, paradoxically benefited Ewing’s bunch today?
Ewing thought so, opining “I thought it helped. We could have easily have let the rope go, but we still fought. We came into half with a thirteen point lead…They’re a very good team. They fought back, cut the lead, then they tied it. And I think they went up.
“I thought we did a great job of fighting back and keeping our composure, and making shots, and making plays. And making the play at the end to secure the win”.
His guys have another chance to show growth, heading to Butler Tuesday for a 630p EST tip-off. Georgetown is now 14-10 overall, 4-9 in BIG EAST action, leaving them slotted eighth, a half a game over DePaul.
Seton Hall (17-8, 6-6, 6th) next plays at Xavier this upcoming Wednesday, a late 9p start.
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