Boston College
Georgetown<BR>(BIG EAST Tournament)
Men's Hoops Advances Past Georgetown, 68-57
March 10, 2004 | Men's Basketball
March 10, 2004
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK - For the first time ever, Georgetown won't be in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. For the first time since 1974-75, the Hoyas won't be invited to play in the postseason.
Boston College's 68-57 opening-round victory over Georgetown on Wednesday moved the Eagles on to the quarterfinals, a round the Hoyas had reached in each of the previous 24 Big East tournaments.
The loss was the Hoyas' ninth straight and left them with a sub-.500 record and out of consideration from either of the postseason tournaments.
"I think that I'm disappointed. I think the players are disappointed," Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said. "I think the streak we just ended was a pretty remarkable streak. You're talking about years in a row being invited to postseason, and that's a pretty incredible streak that I don't think our school got credit for."
Georgetown (13-15) didn't play in the postseason each of those years as it turned down a bid to play in the NIT in 2001-02.
Craig Smith had 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead fifth-seeded Boston College (22-8), which won its sixth straight and ninth of 10 and advanced to a quarterfinal matchup with fourth-seeded and 19th-ranked Syracuse (21-6) on Thursday.
"We really have to focus in on the very next game," Eagles coach Al Skinner said. "We cannot afford to expand our thought process beyond that because if we do we're going to come up short.
"Syracuse beat us pretty good the last time they played us so we have to make sure we're prepared to take on that challenge."
Jared Dudley added 12 points for Boston College, while Uka Agbai had 11 and Jermaine Watson had 10, all in the final 1:14 as he went 10-for-12 from the free-throw line.
Brandon Bowman had 14 points for the Hoyas, who have won a record six Big East tournament titles but none since 1989. Ashanti Cook added 13 points for Georgetown and Gerald Riley and Matt Causey each had 12.
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I don't think we held anything back.
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Courtland Freeman, Georgetown's starting center, sprained his left ankle with 17:51 to play and didn't return. He finished with four points and three rebounds.
The Hoyas started the season 10-0 and didn't qualify for the Big East tournament until the final weekend of the season.
"I think that when I look back on the season, the one thing I am going to think is that our guys did the best they possible could," Esherick said. "I think that in a lot of games we were overmatched and I think some of that was probably recruiting more so than anything that we could have done in relation to the particular game."
Then he talked of the future.
"Help is on the way. Stay tuned," Esherick said, referring to the four-man recruiting class that will enter Georgetown in the fall.
No team has ever won four games in a Big East tournament and if the Eagles expect to win the title they will have to become the first. Playing four games in as many days wasn't a factor Wednesday.
"I don't think we held anything back," Smith said. "They were really aggressive on the defensive end, and we just tried to run our stuff. It was a couple of turnovers here and there but we didn't hold anything back."
The Hoyas scored the first four points of the second half to get within 27-26, but the Eagles went on an 11-2 run to go up 38-28. Georgetown answered with an 11-2 run to get to 40-39 with 12:11 to play on two free throws by Causey.
Riley made two free throws with 1:14 left to get the Hoyas to 58-53 and that's when Watson, a 71-percent free-throw shooter this season, started his personal run from the line that accounted for the Eagles' final 10 points of the game.
"Watson hit those 10 free throws at the end of the ballgame, so we basically had no chance of cutting the lead," Esherick said.
