Hoyas like before give up win

February 5, 2014 - With a 13 point lead and 11:40 remaining to play last night, most of the nearly 8,000 fans in Verizon Center surely thought Georgetown would prevail over Providence. In doing so the Hoyas would not only even the score for their earlier loss to the Friars, but preserve a second place BIG EAST standing.

Unfortunately similar to the team's January 10th match up, G'Town would not hold on to win, this time falling 74-71.

"I think during that stretch, two things happened" said Georgetown head coach John Thompson III afterward of his team scoring one field goal, a three pointer by senior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera (game high 21 points) over that greater-than-half the second period stretch. "There was I believe three possessions in a row...where we let the leading scorer in the BIG EAST get open for a three".

He was referencing senior forward LaDontae Henton, who actually hit two three balls and a long jumper over nearly a two minutes stretch. Henton finished with 16 points and six rebounds.

"Every dead ball, every timeout we were saying 'Know where Henton is" lamented Thompson.

Henton's work coupled with that of senior center Carson Desrosiers, who as Thompson noted scored six consecutive points and helped bring Providence, now 17-6 overall, 7-3 and 2nd place in the BIG EAST, "back in the game". Desrosiers ended up logging 14 points and three rebounds.

That their comeback occurred with star sophomore point guard Kris Dunn (12 points, game high nine assists, eight in the first half) on the bench due to foul trouble left Providence head coach Ed Cooley saying "I was proud of our group when Kris came out, especially our freshman; Ben Bentil today was a man He was a man today. Wow, did he grow up". Bentil, a forward, led the game in rebounds with 11, while tying Henton with a Friar high 16 points.

Georgetown finished shooting 42.6% from the field, including just 25% on three balls in the second half (40% for the game). Providence's 2-3 zone was effective when it counted, which Smith-Rivera attributed to "We weren't moving enough. You know the ball was sticking". The same could be said January 10th.

Also as in the earlier game, Georgetown committed 15 turnovers, this time good for 20 Friar points. Six of those miscues occurred during Provy's crucial comeback stretch, in part leading Thompson to say "We didn't take care of the ball. We can't go through stretches where we're not getting shots".

Freshman Tre Campbell and Isaac Copeland finished with 10 points apiece, though all of the latter's came during the first 20 minutes, while the former scored four in the second half. Joining that duo and Smith-Rivera scoring double figures was Joshua Smith, who added six rebounds but faltered down the stretch before fouling out. Copeland led the team with seven boards.

Providence ended up shooting 53.5% from the field - 57.9% in the second half - well above the Hoyas' league leading 39.2% field goal percentage defense mark going into last night.

What happened?

Smith-Rivera answered "at key moments we got lackadaisical, we weren't covering the guys who were most effective and we paid the most attention to before the game. It was just crucial times when we broke down".

Despite the blown lead and mistakes, Georgetown had two late chances, both not capitalized upon: With 9.8 seconds remaining, freshman swingman L.J. Peak was credited with an in-bounds turnover. Two Bentil free throws and almost eight seconds later, Smith-Rivera's possible game tying three pointer went in and out, sealing his team's doom.

Returning to the déjà vu theme, the Hoyas undercut themselves again at the free throw line, shooting 68%; not a glowing charity stripe percentage, but not terrible either. Nevertheless some of the clanks were as Thompson noted "key misses".

There's no time to mope over them, as G'Town (15-7, 7-4, fourth in BIG EAST) heads up I-95, where league leading Villanova awaits for a Saturday, 2p EST tip-off.

Providence travels to Xavier Saturday as well. That game begins at 1p EST.