1/6/2002 The Hoyas? slide continued on 1/5/02 when they lost an overtime decision at Rutgers 87-89. Mike Sweetney paced all scorers with 26 points and all rebounders with 13 boards on his way to his 8th double-double of the season and the 14th of his career. Kevin Braswell chipped in 20 points and had 5 assists. Gerald Riley added 13 tallies and Tony Bethel rounded out the quartet in double figures with 11 points.
Reversing a recent trend, Georgetown did not ?begin late? but jumped out early. The Hoyas lead had grown to 18 points at the 2:33 mark of the first frame, however, Rutgers refused to accept this state of affairs and ended the half with a 14-4 run, leaving GU up by 8, 45-37.
In the second stanza as soon as Rutgers knotted the score at 50 with 15:02 remaining, the Hoyas built their lead back to 6. At 06:31 GU led by 10, 72-62, but with 1:46 left were only ahead by 3. Rutgers tied the score at 80 with 13 seconds left, but Kevin Braswell?s attempt to win in regulation was not successful and an extra period was needed.
In Overtime, the Hoyas again jumped out to an early 5 point lead, but the Knights, inspired by a frenzied crowd, tied the score at 2:07 and again at 00:13. An open shot by Victor Samnick was unsuccessful in the closing seconds and the Knights managed to score the last two points from the stripe.
For the game the Hoyas were ahead or tied for 44 of 45 minutes, but Rutgers led at the end of the last minute, which made all the difference. The Hoyas shot 49.2 % from the field while holding Rutgers to 41.7% and won the battle of the boards 43 to 38, but gave up 25 turnovers to Rutgers 15.
