March 24, 2005

Box Score

Georgetown (19-13) fell on the road to South Carolina in the quarterfinals of the NIT on 3/24/05 by a score of 66-69. Darrel Owens led all scorers with a career high 26 points on his way to a double-double as he also paced all rebounders with 10 boards. DJ also had 3 assists, 2 steals and 0 turnovers while hitting 7 of 12 from beyond the arc. Brandon Bowman added 12 tallies, had 8 boards, 5 assists and a steal. Ashanti Cook scored 9 points and Jeff Green added 8.

The opening 11 minutes proved once again to be a see-saw battle for the Hoyas. It was only after a trey by Wallace that the Hoyas began establishing their lead. Based largely on the three point shot the Hoyas built a double digit lead in the final minute. Unfortunately, just before intermission the Gamecocks made some uncharacteristic progress from the sin stripe so at the break the score was 34-26.

In the second frame the crowd of more than 10,000 made themselves heard as the Gamecocks put together a 6-0 run coming out of the break. The crowd came alive again at the 11:44 mark when USC began an unanswered string of 13 to create an insurmountable lead. Georgetown, which had only committed 2 turnovers in the first session was guilty of 9 giveaways in the second half. In addition to their other woes (USC's inability to hit a free throw wore off as did their problems from long range) the Hoyas heard 23 whistles to the home team's 12.

For the game the Hoyas shot 42% from the field while the Gamecocks hit at a torrid 60%. Georgetown hit 48% from beyond the arc (14-29) to their opponents more modest 30% (3-10). The Hoyas made 8-11 (73%) from the stripe while USC was 16-31(52%). GU won the battle of the boards 34-26, but had 11 turnovers to Carolina's 9.