Hibbert’s 3-pointer helps Hoyas overcome Huskies
Somewhere Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, and Alonzo Mourning are ecstatic and a little surprised. The next big man in the Hoyas’ storied tradition at center wrote another chapter in his legacy with a shot that nobody could have predicted. It was a match-up centered around two Big East rivals, with Hasheem Thabeet and Roy Hibbert putting the ‘big’, back in Big East. Game, set, match for Georgetown. Advantage Roy Hibbert.
Roy Hibbert drained a 3-pointer with four seconds left to break the tie ballgame, giving No.7 Georgetown a 72-69 win on Saturday, capping off the Hoyas come-from-behind victory against Connecticut. It was just the second career 3-pointer Hibbert made, catching the UConn Huskies defense completely off guard, not expecting the 7-foot-2 center to nail the step-back three to win it.
Georgetown (13-1, 3-0) is now the lone undefeated team in the Big East and the Hoyas notched their second straight win over UConn (11-4, 2-2). The Huskies were without head coach Jim Calhoun on the sidelines for the first time since 2003 due to the flu. Georgetown held the lead at halftime 42-38.
UConn had the Hoyas on the ropes in their own building, up 67-61 with about four and a half minutes to go, but Georgetown erased the six point deficit behind two three’s from Jessie Sapp and Austin Freeman. The successive three’s by Georgetown tied the game at 67. The Huskies didn’t score a basket from the field rest of the way after Jerome Dyson gave UConn the 67-61 lead.
Hibbert had 20 points and eight rebounds, both game highs. Hibbert dominated the big man match-up between he and opposing center Hasheem Thabeet. Thabeet only registered seven points and grabbed just two rebounds. Despite the struggles from Jessie Sapp and Jonathan Wallace (both were just 2-of-8 shooting; Sapp had six points, Wallace had five), Patrick Ewing Jr. gave the Hoyas a tremendous boost off the bench with 14 points. Austin Freeman added 13 points and DaJuan Summers finished with 12.
For UConn, Jeff Adrien led the way with 18 points and six rebounds, A.J. Price had 17 and Doug Wiggins scored 15. Dyson, entering the contest as the leading scorer for UConn, fell into foul trouble early on and finished with only eight points.
It’s a difficult pill to swallow for UConn, a really shocking way to lose a game. I have a funny feeling the Huskies never planned for a spot-up 3-pointer from Hibbert. It’s not like they had an abundance of game film they could of used to prepare for that situation. If you didn’t like this one, you don’t like Big East basketball. Two old rivals going fiercly at one another, a see-saw, tooth-and-nail match-up that went down to the last few seconds. The go-to-guy wound up with the game on his fingertips, and you’d probably be expecting a hook-shot or short turn around shot in the paint from Hibbert. Lesson for UConn: Expect the unexpected. Oh, and the Roy Hibbert can shoot 3-pointers.
Georgetown can enjoy the victory, but it’ll have to be short-lived, as they’ll hit the road for another Big East clash on ’Big Monday’ against Pittsburgh on Monday at 7 p.m. UConn will return home Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Providence.
Tags: Big East Basketball, Connecticut Huskies, Georgetown Hoyas, NCAA Men's basketball, Roy Hibbert