2/12/2003
Georgetown, looking for a charm to break its streak of close-but-no-cigar losses, found no joy in Piscataway on Tuesday, falling to Rutgers 59-66. Mike Sweetney had his 10th double-double of the season and the 32nd of his career, leading all scorers with 22 points and all rebounders with 11 boards. Mike also had five blocks. Gerald Riley added 19 points including five of six from the stripe and two of four from beyond the arc.
The opening frame was a close fought battle with no lead greater than 4 points for either squad. The Hoyas outrebounded the Knights 21 to 15, but only shot 25% to Rutgers 40%. There were a total of 11 rejections in the first frame (GU-5, RU-6) and, Mike Sweetney was the only player to reach double digits with 11 points, despite an effective collapsing zone.
In the second stanza Georgetown stormed back from a 4 point deficit to a 5 point lead with 9-0 run in the first 2 minutes. Rutgers then scored 5 unanswered to which the Hoyas responded with a 7-0 run ending at 13:20. Rutgers? 8-2 response knotted the score at 41 with 10:05 remaining. Over the next 7:30 there were 4 ties and neither team led by more than 3. Unfortunately, Rutgers capitalized on all 7 free-throw opportunities in the final two minutes to win the game 59-66.
For the game the Hoyas won the battle of the boards 43-36, but hit only 34% of their shots while allowing RU to make 37.5% of their attempts. Georgetown had 17 turnovers to Rutgers 8 and each team had 9 blocks.
