Teams

Georgetown:
As they have done time and again season, the Hoyas pulled out another close victory. The win makes Georgetown back-to-back regular season Big East Champions for the first time in school history, and what better way to do it than on the defensive end. The nation’s leader in defensive field goal percentage held Louisville to 36.4% from the field in the first half, and a frigid 22% from beyond the arc in the game. And after Jeremiah Rivers added to the drama by missing the front end of a one-and-one, the Hoyas came up with one more big stop on defense, forcing Louisville to take and miss two contested three pointers.

Louisville:
The Cardinals are a three-point shooting team, and when the shots aren’t falling from downtown, they will struggle. That was the case in this game, as the Hoyas never let the Cardinals get into a groove from three point land. The result was a low-scoring affair, and though Louisville’s defensive pressure kept them in the game, it was not enough to push them to over the top.

Players

Georgetown:
On Senior Day, it was the underclassmen who carried the day. Freshman Austin Freeman showed his stuff. He scored eight points in a row early in the second half to give the Hoyas an 11 point lead. Then, after a comeback by Louisville, it was sophomore DaJuan Summers who buried the game-winning three pointer. It was his only basket of the second half, but it could not have come at a better time for the Hoyas.

Louisville:
Terrence Williams led the Cardinals with 14 points and was instrumental in Louisville’s comeback. His three-pointer with under four minutes left gave Louisville their first and only lead of the second half. He also got an offensive rebound in the dying seconds to give the Cardinals one last chance to tie the game, but Edgar Sosa’s double clutch three was off at the final buzzer.

Coaches

Coach Thompson has stressed poise throughout the season, and once again his teaching has proved beneficial. Even with the team down in the last moments of the game, there was a steady calm about the team, a quiet assurance, and he can be given some of the credit for the great execution at the end of games.

Referees

The referees did not call many fouls in this game, in sharp contrast to the Hoyas’ last contest. As a result, the Hoyas shot only five free throws the entire game. The refereeing, while consistent, probably hurt Georgetown more than Louisville, since the Cardinals pressured the ballhandlers all game, and a few times Louisville got steals that in other games might have been whistled as fouls.

Fans

A sell-out crowd at the Verizon Center was on hand to send off the seniors in their last home game. There was a large contingent of Louisville fans in attendance as well, and at a few timeouts they could be heard cheering on the Cardinals. But, at the end of the game it was the Georgetown fans making all the noise. The students were out in full force, which is a testament to them, as their Spring Break was not yet over. They were rewarded after the game, as Roy Hibbert came over to start a “We are…Georgetown” chant after the final horn.

Number of the Game

8: Free throws missed by Louisville, almost twice the number attempted by the Hoyas. No miss was more important than Earl Clark’s, as he went 1-2 from the line with 1:12 remaining to only tie the game instead of retake the lead. The miss set up the end-of-game heroics for Summers.

Perfection

For the first time since moving out of USAirways Arena, the Hoyas were undefeated at home. The Verizon Center celebrated its ten year anniversary this year, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than with a perfect home record.