Swanagan, Humphrey lead late-game surge
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Associate Sports Editor
WASHINGTON
The Irish men's basketball team accomplished a grocery list of firsts Saturday in its 78-71 road win over the No. 10 George-town Hoyas (17-2, 4-2 Big East). Notre Dame (13-5, 5-2) won its fourth consecutive Big East game for the first time since joining the league in 1995-96.
The Irish cruised to three games above .500 in league play for a new pinnacle. Irish coach Mike Brey's squad beat two Top 10 teams in a row for the first time in school history (Syracuse ranked ninth in last week's ESPN/USA Today poll, while Georgetown was 10th in the Associated Press rankings).
The blue and gold knocked off their Catholic school rivals in the most unexpected of fashions. In a tied-up tussle for the lead in the Big East West Division race, Notre Dame's normal strategy would be to turn All-American Troy Murphy loose inside and keep forwards Ryan Humphrey and Harold Swanagan, who were shooting just 54 percent from the foul line in league play prior to Saturday, far from the charity stripe.
Yet Murphy was relegated to the bench after fouling out with four minutes, 27 seconds to play. Brey called a quick timeout to tell the team his tactics for garnering the upset victory.
"We wanted to look a little more perimeter-oriented," Brey said of his game plan once Murphy picked up his fifth personal, a patty cake call on a shot by Georgetown's Demetrius Hunter. "We're not so much of a low post team at that point."
Hunter tossed up two gutter balls from the line, and Irish guard Matt Carroll tugged down the rebound. At the other end of the floor, Georgetown's defense eschewed Brey's strategy by keeping Notre Dame perimeter shooters Matt Carroll, David Graves and Martin Ingelsby tied up.
The Irish were forced to look elsewhere for offensive electricity. Instead of swinging the ball around the outside, Notre Dame pumped it in to Humphrey and Swanagan in the paint, taking their chances with the post men's marksmanship from the line.
Amazingly, Humphrey and Swanagan hit 10 of 13 free throws down the stretch and Notre Dame took over with Murphy watching in the wings.
"There are going to be a lot of times throughout our careers," Swanagan said, "that he [Murphy] is not going to be there to help us out every time."
Humphrey batted down both free throws for Notre Dame's first lead of the game, a 61-59 threshold, with 3:57 to play. After an official timeout, Georgetown's Wesley Wilson, who scored 10 points off the bench, missed his own putback, and Humphrey grabbed the board.
Back on offense, Humphrey, who led the Irish with 17 points and 10 rebounds, couldn't guide the ball through the hoop, but Swanagan eked out the rebound and was hammered in the process. The 6-foot-7 junior, starting his fourth straight game in place of Graves, followed through with two free throws to crank the Irish ahead by four.
"Swanagan's been the guy we've used as an example with our team to do the tough, dirty little things," Brey said. "He is so well respected by his teammates I think at times he has shamed them into taking charges, diving after loose balls and setting screens."
Both teams failed to convert on their next offensive series, then Humphrey and Graves combined to poach the ball from the Hoyas. Humphrey rebounded a missed field goal by Carroll, and Swanagan banged in the second chance shot, getting fouled along the way.
After a Georgetown timeout with 1:38 left, Swanagan finished off the 3-point play to swell the Irish lead to seven.
"I never thought that I would be sitting here telling you that I thought Notre Dame played better without Murphy than with him," Hoya coach Craig Esherick said after the game, "but it was at the end when Murphy was out that they stretched out the lead. Swanagan and Humphrey, two guys that we were trying to foul, made free throws, and that was a big part of how they closed the game."
At the other end, Swanagan rebounded a shot by Georgetown's second-leading scorer, Ruben Boumtje, who the Irish held scoreless on the day. The Hoyas, desperate to get back in the game, fouled Swanagan, who sank his fifth straight free throw.
Humphrey connected on one of two free throws a few seconds later to close out a 19-2 Notre Dame explosion. The scoring stream began on back-to-back treys by Graves and a long distance shot by Ingelsby to tie the game at 59, Notre Dame's first tie since a 2-2 start.
The Hoyas whittled the Irish lead to seven in the final minute. After Lee Scruggs, who topped Georgetown's scorers with 17, and Gerald Riley, fouled out, the Irish hung back from defending the Hoyas, choosing to avoid any piddly fouls that could cut at their scoring handicap.
Georgetown carved out an early lead, crafting as large as an eight-point advantage several times, the latest a 54-46 hold on Notre Dame after a 3-pointer by Anthony Perry.
The Hoyas held the Irish in check much of the game with a daunting defense.
Their double-teams of Murphy slyly avoided referees' whistles while the officials readily blew their horns on Murphy, who scored 16 points in 34 minutes of play.
"They're a tough team to control the tempo against, because they press," said Carroll, who coughed up a team-high six assists in the win. "They play great defense. It seems like they have seven guys on the floor at once."
But the Irish held on by holding the league scoring leaders to 71, their second-lowest total of the season. Graves, who scored 15 in the game, ground out one of his best defensive efforts this year. Notre Dame as a whole outrebounded Georgetown, which leads the Big East in boards per game, 38 to 37.
The tag team road win completed Notre Dame's primer lesson in life without Murphy. Two days practicing without their 6-foot-10 captain this week helped school the Irish in avoiding the Fall of Troy. Murphy missed most of Thursday's practice with a sore toe, and a hard blow to the head early in Friday's workout sidelined him the day before battling the Hoyas.
Notes
uReserve center Ivan Kartelo sprained an ankle in practice late last week, and is out indefinitely.
uMurphy leads the Irish and the Big East in scoring with 24.3 points per conference game. Humphrey, Graves and Carroll trail Murphy, each averaging 11.9 points apiece.
uBrey, a native of the Washington area, won the first game in his hometown since being named the head coach of the Irish last July.
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 29, 2001
