Teams

Georgetown:
Georgetown entered the game as the rare higher-seeded underdog, but against the trendy Belmont Bruins, the Hoyas proved that they were in fact the better team. Georgetown controlled this game from beginning to end thanks to their efficient offense and stingy defense. There were stretches where the Hoyas had lapses that have proved dangerous all season, but for the most part, they played a solid game. And most importantly, they live to play again.

Belmont:
Belmont came into the game as the 4th highest scoring team in the country, averaging 81.5 points per game. Against the Hoyas’ defense, the Bruins only managed 59 points – their lowest point total of the season and over 20 points less than their average. Part of this can be attributed to their size and how much larger and longer the Hoyas are, but also, Georgetown just plays really good defense and they couldn’t compete.

Players

Georgetown:
Jason Clark showed up big on Friday, dominating the game on both sides of the court. After a disappointing showing offensively in the Big East Tournament – only scoring 15 points over the two games – it was great seeing the old Jason back scoring 21 points off of an incredible 9-12 shooting. As the Hoyas face new teams in the postseason, it’s critical that they are able to score in different ways to open up the game. When Jason can knock down the three and can take it to the whole, it does so much for the offense, making it easier for Henry and Otto to do the dirty work inside and making it easier for the other shooters to get open looks or backdoor cuts.

Belmont:
Blake Jenkins was the one player for Belmont who was successful against the Hoya defense as he scored 17 points off of 7-11 shooting. But one player’s not enough, and his teammates struggled against Georgetown’s D, he couldn’t do enough to stop the bleeding.

Referees

The officials were pretty fair and consistent in Columbus. My only complaint is I’m not sure if they understand what a travel is. There were a couple of pretty standard post moves – I remember one running hook and one jump stop – that got called for walks. It was weird.

Number of the Game

78.5: Georgetown’s shooting percentage for the entire game if you exclude Henry Sims and Hollis Thompson. The other seven players who scored for the Hoyas were an unbelievable 22 for 28 from the field. That’s crazy.

Hollis in the Tournament

Before this game, no player on this Georgetown team had won an NCAA Tournament game, and Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson were the only players who had played in more than one tournament game. Both of those are games that most Hoya fans would like to forget, but the one positive in those two losses were Hollis Thompson.

As a freshman, Hollis had averaged 4.4 points per game before facing Ohio in the NCAA Tournament. Then, he scored a career-high 16 points in his last game of the season. As a sophomore, Hollis was averaging 8.0 points per game, but then against VCU, he again scored a career-high, this time scoring 26 points.

He did not continue the trend against Belmont, but then again, the team didn’t continue the trend of losing, so I’ll take that trade. But hopefully, Super Hollis will show up again this tournament.