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That was no surprise.
What was unexpected was the 45 bench points the Hoyas received and
the performance of all five reserves who saw action. Due in large
part to the full-team effort, fourth-seeded Georgetown scored a
84-74 victory over 13th-seeded Eastern Washington in an NCAA
Tournament South Region second-round game at the Moda Center.
"This tournament is about stories like this," said coach John
Thompson III, whose Hoyas will play fifth-seeded Utah in Saturday's
third round. "Those guys gave us a boost."
Georgetown went on an 18-2 run to overhaul Eastern Washington late
in the first half, then started the second half with a 15-2 run on
its way to the win over the Big Sky Conference champion.
Smith-Rivera, a first-team All-Big East selection, scored 19 of his
points in the second half to lead the Hoyas (22-10) to their seventh
win in the past nine games. Smith-Rivera also grabbed eight rebounds
and shot 9-for-13 from the foul line.
Then there were the Georgetown reserves. Forwards Mikael Hopkins (10
points, nine rebounds), Paul White (10 points on 4-for-5 shooting)
and Aaron Bowen (eight points), guard Tre Campbell (nine points) and
center Bradley Hayes (eight points, six rebounds) all had an impact.
Guard Tyler Harvey scored 27 points and forward Venky Jois collected
19 points and eight rebounds for the Eagles, whose five-game winning
streak was snapped.
Harvey scored 10 of Eastern Washington's first 18 points and helped
stake the Eagles to a 24-17 lead. Hayes' two free throws gave
Georgetown the lead at 30-29, part of an 18-2 run that produced a
43-31 advantage. The Hoyas settled for a 43-33 edge at the break,
shooting 59.3 percent from the field while knocking down seven of 13
shots from 3-point range.
The Hoyas stoked their lead to 58-35 early in the second half, but
Eastern Washington didn't die. The Eagles (26-9) used a 23-10 run to
get within 68-58 with 3:20 remaining. Six points by Harvey -- on a
four-point play and a pair of free throws -- cut the difference to
76-68 with 52 seconds to go, but the Eagles ran out of time.
"We took a little while to get going, but I liked the way we came
out at the start the second half and extended our lead," Thompson
said. "Fortunate for us we did, because we had so many turnovers, we
let them back into the game.
"Eastern Washington made a nice run after we got the big lead. We
finally settled in and hit some shots, and we defended until the
very end, when we had some turnovers that made us look like we've
never played before."
Georgetown finished the game shooting 52.1 percent from the field,
including 11 of 23 from 3-point range. The Eagles shot at a 40.6
percent clip and were 9-for-28 from beyond the arc.
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"The difference tonight was how they shot the ball and we shot the
ball," Eastern Washington coach Jim Hayford said. "We needed a
really good shooting night to beat them, and we didn't bring it.
Credit them for their defense. Those are some long guys you're
shooting over, and they play very smart. We didn't lose tonight;
they beat us."
Harvey, who entered the game leading the nation with a 22.9-point
scoring average, finished 9-for-20 from the field and 6-for-12 on
3-point attempts. The Hoyas focused much of their defensive effort
in controlling the 6-foot-5 junior.
"The coaches told me he is the leading scorer in the nation," said
Georgetown guard Jabril Trawick, who spent much of the night
defending Harvey. "Watching (video) of his games, a lot of the shots
he was taking were crazy shots -- deep threes. I wanted to make it
tough on him. Tried to force him right as much as I could. I think I
did a pretty good job."
NOTES: Georgetown played 15 games against eight teams that made the
NCAA Tournament field. ... ... Georgetown C Joshua Smith, a
6-foot-10, 350-pound senior out of Kent, Wash., recorded four points
and no rebounds in seven foul-plagued minutes. Smith played two
seasons for UCLA before transferring after the 2011-12 season. ...
Eagles G Tyler Harvey, a former walk-on, came into the tournament
shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point range, and he improved on that
with his 6-for-12 effort. ... The only other time Eastern Washington
made the NCAA Tournament was in 2004.
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