G’town 56 – Seton Hall 51
The meltdown was a microcosm of Seton Hall’s disappointing season, a perfect picture of the growing pains the Pirates have had to endure.
Miss after miss, botched play after botched play, they saw what had been a double-digit lead wither away. And in the end, after they turned victory into yet another crushing come-from-ahead defeat, they fell 56-51 to struggling Georgetown in last night’s Big East Tournament opener.
After John Allen gave his 10th-seeded Pirates (12-16) a 49-41 lead on a left-corner 3-pointer with 4:46 to play, who knew that would be the last basket they’d score, their last reason to celebrate?
The Pirates helplessly watched the seventh-seeded Hoyas (17-11) close on a 15-2 run in front of a stunned 19,528 at the Garden to earn tonight’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal date with red-hot 12th-ranked UConn and send them home for the season.
“It’s tough when you’re not getting the ball – that’s the frustrating thing,” said Allen, who ended his career with a near-invisible, five point, five-shot effort.
“A lot of the times I thought I was open and I didn’t touch the ball. It was frustrating not to touch the ball at crucial parts of the game.”
Just call Darrel Owens the anti-Allen. The senior swingman scored all 14 of his points in the final eight minutes, including the go-ahead right-wing 3-pointer with 1:01 left.
Said Hoya coach John Thompson III, who left his alma mater, Princeton, to take over the program that his famous father built into a power: “We could’ve caved in. We had lot of games early on that we pulled out. This group fought back and found a way to win. I’m glad we remembered what it felt like.
“Both winning and losing is contagious. We went through a stretch where we were losing. I’m glad that we responded the way we did. This is a game we could’ve packed it in.”
In the final, fateful moments, The Hall shot 0-for-4 with three turnovers and missed the front end of a one-and-one. Meanwhile, the Hoyas kept their thin NCAA tourney hopes alive. They’d lost five straight games, but thanks to Brandon Bowman’s 16 points, they snapped that slide.
The Pirates had snapped a five-game slide with a regular-season-ending upset of West Virginia. With J.R. Morris still suspended and Brian Lang just returning from injury, they actually got a huge buzzer-beating shot from Justin Cerasoli to end the first half up 28-27, and with the momentum.
They came out of intermission on a 16-5 run to take a 44-33 lead. But with Donald Copeland ailing – he threw up at halftime – Cerasoli was forced to carry more weight. They committed a shot-clock violation, then gave Bowman two foul shots, and finally Owens’ 3-pointer to give up the lead.
Cerasoli got caught in the air and threw the ball away down 51-49 with :31.6 left. Bowman added two foul shots with :25 left, and after Jamar Nutter cut it to two, Andre Sweet’s turnover with:12 sealed it.
Coach Louis Orr consoled Cerasoli, who debunked rumors of a possible transfer. Said Orr: “The courage he has to try and make plays at the end of the game, you have to have a balance. That’s something he’s got to learn. It’s feast or famine.”
Last night was famine.
