Hoyas physically dominate in 83-73 win
By JOE HETTLER
Sports Writer
With Harold Swanagan unable to play due to a re-aggravated left ankle sprain, the Georgetown Hoyas pushed and bullied their way to an 83-73 victory against an undersized Notre Dame team Monday night.
Without Swanagan's presence the Hoyas three big men — Mike Sweetney, Wesley Wilson and Courtland Freeman — controlled the offensive and defensive boards as Georgetown out-rebounded Notre Dame 54-41.
"When you're missing a guy like Swanagan I think you're clearly not at full force," said Georgetown head coach Craig Escherick. "I thought we made them shoot tough 3s the whole game and I thought Courtland [Freeman], Wesley [Wilson] and Mike [Sweetney] played as well as they've played all year."
Sweetney, who was averaging 19.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game coming into the contest, led both teams with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Wilson and Freeman each had 11 points and seven and six rebounds, respectively.
"Georgetown came in very ready to play today," said Irish head coach Mike Brey. "They're certainly the most physical team we have played all year. They just do a good job of just taking up space in the lane and making it look like there's not a lot of room in the half court."
Jordan Cornette started in place of Swanagan but gave up 40 pounds to the hefty Sweetney. Despite this weight difference, Cornette shot 5-of-8 from the field and ended up with a career high 11 points. Ryan Humphrey led the Irish with 19 points and 11 rebounds while Matt Carroll added 17 points, including three 3-pointers.
Yet the Irish were victimized from the start by lack of size and weight inside the key. Sweetney's first two buckets came via offensive rebounds as the Hoyas opened up a 16-8 lead five and a half minutes into the game. Georgetown extended their lead to 37-20 with a little more than six minutes to go in the first half before Carroll drained his first 3-pointer of the game. Notre Dame continued to fight their way back into the game and cut Georgetown's lead to 44-33 at halftime.
Both teams exchanged baskets throughout the first nine minutes of the second half until Sweetney hit a jump shot in the lane starting a 7-0 Hoyas run that extended the Georgetown lead to its biggest of the game, 70-52.
But Notre Dame refused to quit, cutting the lead to seven points with 1:06 left in the second half on a Carroll 3-pointer.
Unfortunately for the Irish, that would be as close as they would get.
After Kevin Braswell missed a free throw on the ensuing possession, Sweetney apparently reached over Carroll for the rebound and got fouled while attempting a put back. Brey immediately left his coaching box, stormed to half court and after yelling at the official, received his first technical foul as Notre Dame's head coach.
"I thought [calling the foul on Sweetney] would have been a nice statement by a good official," said Brey.
That incident was not the only controversial call that the officials made during the game. In the first half Jere Macura and Harvey Thomas engaged in a scuffle yet no foul was called. Later in that half Thomas instigated a pushing match with Cornette with both players receiving technical fouls for the incident.
The Irish have now lost three straight and dropped to below .500 in Big East play at 2-3. Brey feels the Irish must rebound quickly if they hope to make a run at the NCAA tournament.
"We are going to try and get this home thing down, " said Brey. "Our crowd has been fabulous these last couple of games. We are going to keep on plugging [so] don't give up on this team yet."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, January 22, 2002
