Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2

Georgetown University Head Coach John Thompson III

On Providence shooting 54-percent from the floor against GU's strong defense...
I think they did a good job of sharing the ball. Before he got in foul trouble (Kris) Dunn is elite at what he does. Dunn is one of the best guards in the country, so he did a good job of getting his teammates the ball in positions where they wanted it.

On Georgetown getting more high-low looks in the second half...
In the first half we were looking to throw it straight into Josh. We thought they were getting more and more spread out, so we wanted to get the ball into the middle. Not necessarily high-low, but to get in the middle to make them make a decision.

On Georgetown's ball security...
You have to give them credit they played good defense. We didn't take care of the ball. We can't go through stretches where we aren't getting shots. They did a good job of playing the passing lanes, we didn't hold onto the ball a lot of times, but you have to give their defense credit.

On Georgetown's free throw shooting...
We had some key misses.

On the inbound play at the end of the game and what it was designed to do...
It was supposed to get it in. Isaac popped out, they denied him and everybody stood and watched instead of moving to get open. We wanted to get it in and have a quick reversal and we had Jabril and D'Vauntes on the weak side, but Isaac popped out and Bentil denied him a little bit and he kind of stood there instead of working to get open and everyone else just stood and watched.

On what Providence was able to do down the stretch...
During that stretch two things happened. I believe it was three possessions in a row, it felt like three it might have been three out of four, three out of five, we let the leading scorer in the BIG EAST get open for a three...You have to know where Henton is, so he hits three threes and then Desrosiers gets six straight points in a row and they're back in the game. He just made some good strong moves, went at our guys and the ball went in.

On whether Josh Smith's blocking foul was initially called a charge on Providence...
From my vantage point, I think one ref called a block and two called a charge. That's what I saw. I haven't seen the replay and then they huddled up and called the block. From my vantage one of them said block and two definitely said charge.

Junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera

On the defensive performance against Providence ...
I think we defended pretty well today, but at key moments we got lackadaisical. We weren't covering the guys that were most effective and the ones that we paid the most attention to before the game so it was just during crucial times that we broke down.

On the offensive performance tonight ...
Just movement, we just weren't moving enough. The ball was sticking and we were stagnant and just looking for one option instead of looking for the next thing and keeping them on the move.

On the turnovers Georgetown has had versus Providence this season ...
We're just stagnant on offense. Like I said we're just probing too much instead of moving on to the next thing and that was the big thing for us today.

Providence Head Coach Ed Cooley

Opening Statement
Man, there are a lot of different things you can talk about that game. It was kind of three games in one. Very emotional. Where we are missing free throws early, then we had attack their zone. We played a great, great team. And Georgetown has played well as of late, coming off a great win at Creighton on the road. We are coming off a lackluster performance at St. John's. So we knew this was going to be a tough game. We battled some foul trouble with Kris (Dunn). We battled a little bit, he hadn't practiced for two days with his back, and it just was a great team win. It goes to tell you, in this league, every game is coming down to a free throw here, a dead ball here, a call here. Smith-Rivera, a great player, he got off early with threes,(Tre) Campbell, who I think is going to be a great player, (Isaac) Copeland. I thought their freshmen really played well in the first half. Then it was kind of back-and-forth, back-and-forth. We had to kind of change up a little bit from our zone to man because they were carving it up. It was just really a good team win for us. We are on a three-game road trip and to come in here and get a win was really special for us. I love this Georgetown team. They got some resilience, those young kids are good and Smith-Rivera is one of the best players in the country.

On sinking in the high man in the zone defense in the second half ...
LaDontae Henton basically was playing for Georgetown for about 20 minutes today. And I love him to death and he had the wrong slides in the zone and, if you noticed, we took him out of the game to settle him down. I thought he was pressing too much. He was supposed to slide to the rim and we pinched at the corners. We made that adjustment and it really helped us.

On the Providence's resiliency ...
I was proud of our group. Especially when Kris (Dunn) came out and we had those three freshman in the game. In particular, Ben (Bentil). I thought Ben today was a man. He was a man today. Wow did he grow up today. I think the guy who played well, and his stat doesn't dictate it, is Junior Lomomba. I thought he had a great game that didn't show in the stats, but a deflection, moving around, chasing down loose balls. Our freshman played really well.

On the stretch when Kris Dunn was out with foul trouble ...
Yeah, I thought that was the game. When a talent like Kris Dunn comes off the floor, you're just hoping your kids have gone through enough games to weather a storm against a great team. Their energy was good and LeDontae (Henton) was able to get loose for a couple of baskets and the game kind of got haywire. Just BIG EAST basketball.

On expectance of playing mostly zone defense after success in first meeting this season ...
No. You're playing against a great coach, a future hall of fame coach. He's going to make every adjustment, of which they did. We were going to play man and zone, which we've done all year. We were going to try to do anything to get a win. If our zone was working, great, stay in it. If not, go man. If they are killing us in man, go zone. You practice two every day and you work on that. Again, our league is so tough. It is so tough. There is not a night off. If you don't come with a hard hat and be together and be tough and love one another up, you're going to be in for a long game.

On surprise of Kris Dunn moving around so well with a bad back ...
He did. The last two days, he has had a lot of stim, a lot of muscle relaxers. He was really, really tight when we walked into the building today and they loosened him up. I really want to credit our staff, our trainer did a great job because he hasn't practiced for two days. LeDontae (Henton) hasn't practiced in about two weeks with his hip. For those guys to weather that, it was really good. I'm so happy we don't have to play Georgetown anymore.

On the conversation with officials following foul, technical called on same play ...
I can't see that far as a coach. I respect the job the officials do. My No. 1 complaint with that was, okay that was what it was, but I also thought that we had a possession in our game where Carson Desrosiers went to the basket, whether it was a hard foul or whatever, and nothing was reviewed. That's my only problem with it. If you are going to do it down on that end, then you have to take care of it down on this end. I'm just looking for consistency. That is why we were so upset with that.

On the team's toughness with the free throws, particularly both Ben Bentil and Carson Desrosiers ...
Wow. We were throwing rockets at the rim in the first half. Carson's [free throws] I thought were huge. Fifth-year senior, 23 years old, you live for those moments. When you are a fifth-year senior, you have to come through. Where we were the best free throw shooting team in the country last year, this year I think we are 395. We have got to continue to get better at the line, so we'll practice that.