The Hoya Nation is still reeling from Georgetown’s late game crumble, resulting in a 76-75 home loss to DMV rival Maryland last night. Following are observations and anecdotes from the contest.
Warrior Peak
Though he struggled in the first half and ultimately fouled out on an unnecessary interception attempt 80 feet from the basket G’Town was defending – Maryland’s Melo Trimble went on to seal the win with resulting free throws – junior guard L.J. Peak was the Hoyas’ best player: He scored 19 points (17 in the second half), constantly attacking the rim, thereby scoring or earning free throw attempts (was 10-12 there). Peak made Maryland react to him.
Head coach John Thompson III’s Peak summation: “L.J. did what L.J. does; he was able to get to the basket”.
Play it again Sam?
The $10,000 question in both school’s fanbase is, will G’Town and Maryland play each other? Tilts in the last two years were set up by the BIG EAST and BIG Ten, respectively, who pitted them against each other under the Gavitt Games banner. It was not something negotiated by either college per se, and the history of these programs not playing each other for multiple reasons – games supposedly owed, historical acrimony, professed scheduling conflicts - has many wondering whether they will see the Terps and Hoyas compete again.
Both coaches were vague in terms of future scheduling, with Thompson saying “He and I will talk, we’ll see. It was good”, while his Maryland counterpart, Mark Turgeon indicated “We’re going to enjoy tonight… That’s down the road and John and I will talk about it if we’re going to do it again”.
Pair of Maryland G’s
Coming into the game, many believed Maryland’s hopes lay with its starting backcourt of junior Melo Trimble and freshman Anthony Cowan. Those thoughts proved prescient, as the duo keyed their team’s victory.
Trimble lead all scorers with 22 points, tying for game high honors via 36 minutes. He rose to the occasion - 17 of those points were scored in the second period, a half in which he went 6-9 from the field. Repeatedly down the stretch Trimble either got to the rim and scored, or was fouled. His was an exemplary performance.
“He’s an outstanding player. It’s not like it’s a breakdown, he’s going to have success” said Thompson, when asked if oversights/mistakes led to Trimble’s big second half. “He’s very good and they put him in those situations, they put the ball in his hands. And he did what good players do, made plays”.
Backcourt mate Cowan didn’t excel as much in scoring – 11 points on 3-8 shooting – but handed out a game leading five assists while tying the contest best three steals, all in 26 total minutes.
For Cowan to play as well as he did in only his second collegiate competition demands obvious adjustment to his game from high school. When asked what he’s had to get used to, Cowan shared “I would say the biggest adjustment is just the length of players…and for me not to get so deep into the lane sometimes, be able to find open shooters”.
His head coach, Mark Turgeon noted he and his staff “obviously have a lot of confidence in him” and Cowan provides the chance to put “the ball in his hands”, thereby freeing/enabling Trimble to perform other duties. Turgeon also labeled Cowan “terrific defensively”, a guy who always draws “the best player” assignment, one who played big second half minutes (18) and buoyed the Terps by finding teammates for scores.
Cowan’s and Trimble’s centrality was nowhere more evident than handling the Hoyas’ press.
Last Saturday G’Town eviscerated USC – Upstate by picking up full court man and trapping on the first catch. With the Terps primarily relying on Trimble/Cowan to advance the ball, Georgetown didn’t hamper Maryland much via full court defense; repeatedly the Terps inbounded the ball, spaced away, and one of the guards either turned and went or passed to the other, who then did the same. The Hoyas simply couldn’t get traction defensively in this regard. Maryland was charged with 15 giveaways, but precious few, if any can be directly attributed to Georgetown pressing.
Was Thompson shocked?
“No, those guys are good” he said. “And I think I said it yesterday, our press is not like we’re going to turn everyone over all the time. I think it did wear on them a little bit”.
It did, but referee confusion aided Maryland in that regard, as Turgeon admitted “We got like seven extra timeouts” towards the end of the game, allowing him to provide instruction, while his players naturally rested.
Thompson, when asked specifically about Maryland recharging during a blood cleanup acknowledged it, yet noted “that happens, it’s part of the game”.
For more on last night’s contest, including the impact of Georgetown playing Arkansas State tomorrow and a list of Hoya must-improves, visit our Premium Court message board.
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