College Hoops: Conference Tournaments, Day 1
Prior to yesterday afternoon, the last time the Georgetown Hoyas took the court they put on an embarrassing performance, losing to South Florida and costing themselves a first-round bye in the Big East conference tournament in the process. In the first half of Wednesday's game against Notre Dame, they extended their streak of mediocre-to-bad play to 60 minutes, missing their first 12 shots and trailing at the break before rallying for a 67-63 win.
Brandon Bowman scored 25 points to lead the Hoyas, who started the second half with a 11-3 run. He and Ashanti Cook kept the Hoyas safe in the second stanza, combining for three three-pointers during an exciting, up-and-down stretch in which Notre Dame sharpshooter Colin Falls buried a trio of triples of his own.
The Hoyas move on to the Big East quarters, where they'll look to avenge a 57-51 loss against Marquette. Tip is scheduled for 2 o'clock on ESPN, but will likely be delayed until about 2:30 by the Syracuse-Connecticut game being played directly before it. In other local action, George Washington begins its quest for an A-10 title -- and a good NCAA seed -- against Temple at noon today in the conference quarterfinals in Cincinnati. The Colonials beat the Owls 72-60 in Philadelphia in the teams' only meeting this season. Maryland will look to keep it's NCAA Tournament hopes alive against Georgia Tech tonight at 9:30 in the first round of the ACC tourney in Greensboro, N.C. The Terps swept both meetings against the Jackets this year.
Photo by Leafblower, used with permission.
In other local action last night, Howard ended a difficult campaign with a 59-47 loss to top-seeded Delaware in the MEAC quarterfinals. Bison fans looking for a silver lining in a 7-21 season can take solace in the fact that only two seniors will be leaving a team that won five of its final seven games.
Oh, and because it occurred on a Sunday, which is basically the DCist sabbath, we didn't get a chance to voice this opinion sooner. But it should be fun to debate: In this DCist's mind, at least, George Mason's NCAA goose is officially cooked. A 58-49 loss to Hofstra, in which the Patriots blew a 10-point lead and mustered just 16 points in the second half, has tied the hands of the selection committee. While Mason has a better tournament profile than Hofstra and UNC-Wilmington (who earned the conference's automatic bid), they have now lost twice down the stretch to Hofstra, so putting the Patriots in ahead of the Pride isn't realistic. Neither, it seems, is three bids for the CAA. And the fact that Tony Skinn has been suspended for the team's next game by head coach Jim Larranaga after punching an opposing player (in the cubes, no less!) on Sunday doesn't help their case.