Hoyas Have a Shot, But Fall to Gators
Florida 57, Georgetown 53

By Camille Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 25, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS, March 24 -- The most exciting season in the past five years for the Georgetown men's basketball team came down to one last possession in a hard-fought Minneapolis Region semifinal Friday night. The seventh-seeded Hoyas trailed third-seeded Florida by two points, and 19.9 seconds remained. Senior Darrel Owens got the ball toward the top of the key, his defender slipped and fell to the ground, and one of the Hoyas' best shooters had a clear look at the basket.

But Owens's three-point attempt bounced high off the back of the rim, and Florida's Al Horford rebounded the ball and ended the Hoyas' hopes. Florida held on for a 57-53 victory in front of 22,293 at the Metrodome.

The Gators (30-6), who set a school record for victories, will play top-seeded Villanova (28-4) in the region final at 4:05 p.m. Sunday with a berth in the Final Four at stake. Georgetown finished with a 23-10 record, its highest victory total since the 2000-01 season, which also ended with a loss in the NCAA region semifinals.

"It was special, not just for this team but the school and our families," said Owens as he sat in a somber Georgetown locker room. "I think we brought back a sense of pride to the university. This team, we fought all season long, and good things happened. I think this team is going to be even better next year. We talked about how it starts now. They don't want to have this same feeling that we had this year."

The Hoyas, as they were throughout the season, were very balanced. Four players scored in double figures, led by sophomore forward Jeff Green, who had 15 points and added six rebounds and four assists. Sophomore forward Joakim Noah, who spent his youth attending Georgetown basketball camps and longed to be a Hoya, scored 15 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked 5 shots for Florida.

"We don't want to -- I don't want to be going home right now," Hoyas Coach John Thompson III said. "You have to give them a lot of credit. They hung in there, and they made plays down at the end when they needed to make plays. It is what it is."

Much was made in the days leading up to the game of the two teams' contrasting styles: Florida's get-out-and-go transition game vs. Georgetown's more deliberate half-court offense. The Hoyas said repeatedly that they could play at any pace, pointing to their 87-84 victory over Duke in January, and that no team had successfully run on them all season. The final score was much more in line with Georgetown's performances this season (66.4 points per game) than Florida's (79.3 points).

"I think we controlled the pace," said Owens, who finished had three points, four assists and two steals. "We did a good job of wanting to initiate the offense. They've got some big guys in the middle, but we still ran the things we wanted to run."

Georgetown opened up a nine-point lead over the first 12 minutes of the game by moving the ball to get good looks at the basket. The Gators, at times, looked disinterested in playing defense for long possessions, and the Hoyas took advantage by making open three-pointers or working the ball inside to Green and 7-foot-2 sophomore Roy Hibbert (10 points).

Ashanti Cook (12 points) blew by Walter Hodge for a layup to put the Hoyas up 21-12 with 8 minutes 39 seconds left until halftime, but Florida went on a 16-5 run over the next four minutes, forcing five turnovers and blocking one shot in that span.

Georgetown still led, 30-28, at the half, but the Gators wasted little time in erasing the deficit. Taurean Green made a three-pointer, and then Noah had one of his most impressive stretches of the game -- he blocked a shot by Hibbert, blocked a shot by Green and then ran hard to the other end of the court and scored on a nice move inside. Florida scored the first eight points of the half and led, 36-30.

The most significant thing that happened in the first five minutes of the second half, however, was that Green -- the Hoyas' most indispensable player -- picked up three fouls (two on the offensive end) in a two-minute span. When he went to the bench with 16:22 to play, he had scored 13 of the Hoyas' 31 points, had a hand in several other baskets and was key in defending the Gators' athletic big men.

With Green out, Noah scored five straight points, but the Hoyas managed to stay close.

"You look back and say what if this shot fell, what if that shot fell," said Owens, a career 39 percent three-point shooter. "Obviously, I had a good look on my last three, and I usually make those shots. It didn't go down, so it's going to haunt me for a long time. I can't look back at this negatively, it has to be positive energy for this team. I'm just thankful I could play on a team like this throughout my career."