Old habits doom Hoyas versus Cuse
December 17, 2017 - On a now 8-1 season, Georgetown has showed two troubling commonalities, with head coach Pat Ewing regularly lamenting his team’s penchant for allowing significant second half leads to be reduced, while also being impacted by full court defensive pressure. That duo of ailments reared their head yesterday at Capital One Arena, conspiring against the Hoyas who fell to arch rival Syracuse in overtime, 86-79.
First an inability to protect a lead.
The Hoyas led by 13 points with just under 11 minutes to play, 10 around three minutes later. From that point until the start of overtime, they were outscored 19 to 10. The game’s leading scorers, sophomore wing Tyus Battle (29 points) and freshman wing Oshae Brissett (25 points), completed a trio of three pointers among themselves during that stretch for the Orange
“It’s all about closing games out…it feels bad…you couldn’t’ finish on your home court” said junior Hoya center, Jessie Govan. In his mind their defeat was predicated on “things you can control”.
Add dealing with full court pressure to not only something the Hoyas should be able to execute against, have struggled against all season, and standing as a prime reason they lost yesterday; 16 turnovers were committed by Ewing’s guys, including 10 in the second half and overtime.
From with less than 13 minutes before the second half’s cessation, Syracuse deployed a simple yet effective, 94 foot scheme; aggressively hinder the inbound pass, while denying Hoyas an opportunity to catch it, via face guarding. After the initial reception, a hard double team descended, causing havoc for the Hoyas.
All of G’Town’s nine turnovers during this stretch were not directly related to this measure – such as junior guard Franklin Howard’s pluck leading to a game tying, fast break scorer with only a minute remaining – but pressing certainly impacted Georgetown’s fortunes.
Syracuse’s head guy Jim Boeheim was accurate in his assessment of both pressing the Hoyas and its larger effect: “I think we got down, we were going to press. I thought they handled it pretty good (initially), they got by three or four times; we had to press to keep the tempo up, hoping they miss or we get steal. They missed a couple, then we got a couple of steals, and it got our offense going”.
Jagan Mosely (20 points), a sophomore Hoya guard, succinctly noted of Syracuse’s press “We didn’t handle it well to be honest. Kind of changed the game….We had too many turnovers”.
Ewing added allowing Syracuse copious offensive rebounds to his team’s faults, as “I think they had four or five offensive rebounds in the first half, and then they ended up with what, 19 for the game, it’s hard to overcome that”.
Syracuse won the offensive glass scrum 19-9, while pulling down seven more rebounds totally (44-37). Brissett led all glass cleaners with 14 caroms secured, followed by sophomore forward Mathew Moyer’s 11. Georgetown was paced by two players with eight rebounds, Govan, who also led his team with 21 points, and junior forward Marcus Derrickson.
The latter was rung with his fourth and fifth foul just eight seconds apart. Resultantly, G’Town didn’t have his services for the last five minutes and 15 seconds, a great loss as Marcus scored 14 points and has good synergy with Govan, a useful tool against Syracuse’s active, athletic front line and unique zone defense.
Ewing was blunt “His last two fouls were bad calls to me” while also indicating its effect “did change the nature of the game. We had to play small” which “hurt us on the glass”.
Going into the extra period knotted at 69, Syracuse never trailed going forward.
“We had some momentum going in overtime, and Tyus…has finally got back” opined Boeheim, the last assertion pointing towards Tyus Battles two huge, extra-time three balls.
Ewing was unhappy that Syracuse’s “best offensive players (Battle, Brissett and Howard) were able to have big numbers against us” the last contributing 19 points and a game high nine assists. Adding to his consternation was “a team that doesn’t shoot well from the three point line was able to shoot well against us from the three point line. This is something we try and pride ourselves on trying to do; cover the paint and get back to the three point line. It's something we didn’t’ do well”.
Syracuse (9-1) logged a greater shooting number from long distance (43.5%) than the floor (40.6%) over the course of 45 minutes; typically, the Orange manage less than 30% from three point land. Georgetown bested Syracuse in overall shooting at 45.6%, a mark which included their anemic 11.8% (2-17) three pointer mark.
G’Town gets another chance to address their faults, welcoming North Texas this Wednesday to Capital One Arena for a 7p EST tip-off.
Syracuse next takes the court Tuesday, when Buffalo rumbles into the Carrier done, a contest beginning at 7p EST.