VILLANOVA, Pa., Jan. 15 -- Ghosts of the epic 1985 NCAA title game between Georgetown and Villanova lurked everywhere inside The Pavilion on Saturday.
Members of the Wildcats' championship team, which beat the heavily favored Hoyas, watched from the stands. Official John Clougherty was on the floor, just as he was for the 1985 final. And a John Thompson paced the sideline in front of the Georgetown bench.
Brandon Bowman dunks as Villanova's Marcus Austin watches. Darrel Owens's two free throws with 0.1 second left gave Georgetown the win.
(Rusty Kennedy -- AP)
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Villanova was celebrating the 20th anniversary of its historic upset, but the Hoyas ruined the day with their 66-64 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 6,500. After Villanova's Will Sheridan tied the score with a dunk with 2.4 seconds left on the clock, Georgetown's Ashanti Cook threw a long pass to Darrel Owens, who was fouled with one-tenth of a second remaining. Owens made both free throws to win the game.
"I wish I could sit here and tell you we work on that five minutes a day at the end of practice like a lot of people do," said John Thompson III, the son of the John Thompson who coached the 1985 Hoyas. "Ashanti is a basketball player, Darrel is a basketball player. And they just made a play at the end."
Said Owens, who finished with nine points: "It was kind of a heads-up play. I was thinking what Coach probably would want me to do in that situation. It worked out; Ashanti made a great pass, and we came away with the win."
And the Hoyas won in what has lately become typical fashion: They scrapped. Georgetown (11-4, 3-1) got down early, trailed at halftime (this time by a 36-27 margin), and rallied in the second half. The Hoyas scored the first five points of the second half to get back into the game and drew even with 11 minutes 50 seconds remaining. Georgetown held the Wildcats to 28.6 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.
The Hoyas didn't shoot well from beyond the three-point arc (5 for 17), but they once again rebounded well, holding a 39-27 edge. Freshman Jeff Green had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and sophomore reserve Ray Reed played a season-high 17 minutes and made key plays down the stretch for the Hoyas. Reed had nine points, two assists and two steals.
For Villanova (9-3, 2-2), junior forward Curtis Sumpter had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots -- an impressive line for someone who wasn't expected to play because of a knee injury suffered in practice Jan. 7.
The Hoyas clung to a 63-62 lead with less than a minute left in the game. But Sheridan intercepted a pass from Owens on the perimeter -- the second steal of the season for the 6-foot-8 forward -- and the Wildcats called timeout with 34 seconds remaining. Mike Nardi's three-point attempt from the left side spun around the rim and popped out, right into the hands of Reed, who was promptly fouled.
Reed, who had converted all six of his previous free throws in the game, made one of two with 14 seconds left, giving Georgetown a 64-62 lead. At the other end, Nardi fed Sheridan for a dunk that tied the score at 64 with 2.4 seconds left.
Cook grabbed the ball after it fell through the hoop and launched a long pass to Owens, who was streaking down the middle of the court. Sumpter, bum knee and all, managed to catch Owens and foul him.
Owens, who had attempted just seven free throws this season (making five), calmly sank both shots. The final score was 66-64 -- remarkably, the same as on April 1, 1985. The difference: Georgetown won.
"We may have had a few ghosts of Billy Martin, Horace Broadnax, Michael Jackson and some of those guys when that ball was sailing downcourt and Darrel was taking off down the floor," Thompson said, referring to three members of the 1985 Georgetown team. "We might've had a few of those guys helping it get over the top and laying it into Darrel's hands."
Hoyas Note: Senior guard RaMell Ross missed his second straight game. His mother, Gisele, died last weekend, and the funeral was held on Saturday afternoon.
