Georgetown uses 3-point barrage to surge past Eastern Washington

PORTLAND – Eastern Washington knows it now: Cinderella’s slipper isn’t one-size-fits-all. Not on a night when the heavyweight beats you at your own game, as Georgetown did to the underdog Eagles in their second-round NCAA tournament game Thursday night. The Hoyas hit enough 3-point shots – 11 of them on 23 attempts – to end the best season in Eagles history with an 84-74 win before a crowd of 14,279 at the Moda Center. “The difference was how they shot the ball and how we shot the ball,” Eastern coach Jim Hayford said after the game. “We need a really good shooting night to beat them, and we didn’t bring it.” “That’s a credit to their defense,” said Hayford, whose team was 9 for 28 (32 percent) from beyond the arc and 26 for 64 (42 percent) for the night. Long before tipooff, Eastern was a favorite pick of bracket-busters across the nation. But if the 13th-seeded Eagles drew further inspiration from NCAA upsets earlier in the day by No. 14 seeds Georgia State and UAB, so did the Hoyas. The Big East runners-up weathered an early barrage, then surged past the Eagles in a rally that carried well into the second half. In 12-minute span, a seven-point EWU lead turned into an 18-point deficit. To their credit, the Eagles (26-8) cut a 23-point deficit to seven in the late going, but couldn’t mount a nailbiting rally like the one last weekend that carried them past Montana and into the NCAAs. Instead, it will be fourth-seeded Georgetown advancing to a third-round South regional game Saturday against Utah. If Hayford threw down the gauntlet with his “We’re gonna win” proclamation two days earlier, the Hoyas responded by throwing down 3s when they needed them most. Georgetown guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera led the way with six of them and finished with a game-high 25 points. “Our guys were fired up” by Hayford’s challenge, Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. National scoring leader Tyler Harvey finished with a game-high 27 points, but was silenced during the Hoyas’ big run late in the first half and early in the second. The game began well enough for the Eagles, who missed their first five 3-point shots but tied the game at 7 after Harvey converted a loose ball into a layup. Things got even better in a 5-minute span that saw the Eagles hit five of six 3-pointers and send Smith to the bench with two personal fouls. Harvey, Felix Von Hofe and Bogdan Bliznyuk hit consecutive 3s to put the Eagles ahead 24-17 with 8:15 left. Then Georgetown sent Smith’s backup, Mikael Hopkins, to the bench after he commited a second foul. Not a good thing, as it turned out. The Hoyas turned to seldom-used third-stringer Bradley Hayes, a 7-footer who’d averaged only 0.5 points a game this season. But in only 9 minutes of action in the first half, Hayes was 3-for-3 from the field, scored 8 points and pulled down six boards. “Brad was a great help for us,” Georgetown guard Jabril Trawick said with a smile. In another turning point, Harvey was pushed to the floor at midcourt with the Eagles clinging to a 29-28 lead with 4:57 left. Hayford argued for a foul, but none was called after officials reviewed the action via replay. Harvey said after the game that there was no foul, adding he may have slipped on a wet spot. “No big deal,” said Harvey. Except that it was, judging by what happened next. The crowd booed that non-call and two others, but the action energized the Hoyas and deflated the Eagles, who missed six of their last seven shots. By the end of the half, the Eagles trailed 43-33 and badly needed a respite. Halftime didn’t help. The regression continued early in the second half. Smith didn’t return until late in the game, but Hopkins converted a loose ball into a slam-dunk and Smith-Rivera hit another 3 to put the Hoyas ahead 50-35 with 16:31 left. After a turnover, Smith-Rivera hit another 3. For the game, the Hoyas hit 11 of 23 shots from beyond the arc, while Eastern was 9 for 28. “We were trying to focus on inside-out defense against them,” Harvey said. “They can pound it inside. We were there, forced the kick outs. They were knocking it down.” On it went, EWU managing only a pair of layups from Jois in the first 9 minutes after intermission as the Georgetown lead grew by leaps. On one forgettable possession, the Eagles worked the ball around smartly for 25 seconds, only to have Drew Brandon’s shot get swatted on a 3-point attempt from the left corner. With 9:15 to play, Paul White’s layup gave Georgetown its biggest lead of the night at 65-42.