Georgetown students burst onto the court at MCI Center just moments after freshman Roy Hibbert's dunk at the buzzer gave the Hoyas a thrilling 55-54 win over Notre Dame yesterday afternoon. They danced and cheered, and it hardly seemed to matter when officials tried to move them off of the floor as they checked to see if Hibbert got his shot off before time expired.
When the officials finally indicated that the shot was, indeed, good, it set off another round of giddy celebration. It was as if all the pent-up frustrations of watching Georgetown come up short so many times over the past few seasons spilled out. It was remarkable because only seconds earlier, it seemed as if the Hoyas were heading for a heartbreaking defeat.
Georgetown's Ashanti Cook celebrates after Roy Hibbert's buzzer-beating dunk gives the Hoyas a thrilling 55-54 win over Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon.
(Evan Vucci - AP)
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Sophomore Colin Falls made a tough three-pointer to put the Irish up by one, 54-53, with five seconds left. But Georgetown junior Ashanti Cook took the inbounds pass, drove the length of the floor and fed Hibbert for the game-winning dunk.
There was a certain amount of justice in the way the Hoyas were able to come back and beat Notre Dame (12-4, 4-2 Big East). Georgetown had dropped its previous four games to the Irish, including two overtime defeats that encompassed a total of six extra periods and plenty of missed opportunities by the Hoyas.
But this is a very different Georgetown team. Cook knew what to do, and for the second time in eight days, he set up the game-winning points with a heady play.
In the Hoyas' 66-64 win over Villanova on Jan. 15, Cook's long inbounds pass set up two free throws from Darrel Owens with one-tenth of a second left on the clock. In both games, Coach John Thompson III did not call a timeout to set up a final play. In both cases, he left it in the hands of the players.
"We told the guys before, in those situations -- much like the Villanova game -- just get it and go," Thompson said. "A lot of times you call timeout and defenses get a chance to set, so they know to get it and go. I don't think [Hibbert] has ever moved that fast in his life. Ashanti made a heck of a play and [passed] it down."
Said junior Brandon Bowman, "We talk about team, and I had a feeling that someone would get the ball out quick, push it up the floor and we'd get a good shot."
The Hoyas (12-5) are 4-2 in the Big East, which puts them in third place and equals last season's conference win total.
The score was tied at halftime, and 20 of the Hoyas' 29 points in the first half came on shots from the lane, something of an anomaly for a team that generally relies on its outside shooting. Georgetown made only 2 of the 10 three-pointers it attempted in the first 20 minutes, perhaps because its two best long-range shooters -- Cook and freshman Jonathan Wallace -- took only two of those shots. But the Hoyas made up for their shooting deficiencies by grabbing 11 offensive rebounds (to Notre Dame's three) and held a 21-16 rebounding edge.
The Hoyas scored the first five points after the break and were in control for much of the second half. They still held a five-point edge, 53-48, with 3:20 left to play. Georgetown took only three more shots the rest of the way -- and made only one, Hibbert's dunk.
Chris Thomas hit an open three-pointer from the right corner to bring Notre Dame to within two, 53-51. A traveling violation by Bowman gave the Irish the ball with 49 seconds left, and Hibbert's fourth foul gave them a fresh shot clock -- and a chance to hold for the final shot -- with 35 seconds left.
The Irish decided to go for the win. After all, Notre Dame had already beaten Seton Hall and St. John's this month by making a three-pointer with six or fewer seconds remaining, and Falls (13 points) is the Big East's best three-point shooter (46 percent).
Thomas found Falls curling off of a screen on the right side, and somehow Falls double-pumped and sank the off-balance three-pointer with five seconds left. Wallace, who fought through the screen, got a piece of the ball, but the Irish had their first lead of the second half.
"That kid's a player," Thompson said of Falls. "We were trying to -- and our guys decided not to do it, which we'll talk about later -- but we had a foul to give. We wanted to foul him before he went into the play. Once Falls caught it, Jon made a decision not to foul him, which was smart. He's tough. You leave him open, it goes in."
That set up Cook's final mad dash. He grabbed the inbounds pass and drove hard to the other end. When he blew by Thomas, Jordan Cornette came up to stop him, and Cook passed to Hibbert. The only question was whether Hibbert shot in time.
Bowman said that he flashed back to the Hoyas' overtime loss at Syracuse on Tuesday night, in which he made what he thought was a game-winning three-pointer that, upon review, turned out to be a game-tying two-pointer because his foot was on the three-point arc.
"I thought it was good, but I prayed just to make sure it was," said the 7-foot-2 Hibbert, who had 11 points and seven rebounds.
