Filed under: Villanova, Big East
PHILADELPHIA -- Big East coaches try their best not to fret in public over a conference loss, considering how inevitable they are against even the comparatively lowly members. And lately, there's nothing lowly about No. 21 Georgetown, now on a four-game Big East winning streak after the most impressive of the wins, 69-66 over eighth-ranked Villanova on the road Saturday afternoon.But Villanova coach Jay Wright couldn't help it. The Wildcats, just two weeks after an impressive non-conference come-from-behind win over Maryland, have now lost three of their last four games, and two in a row. Losing to the 21st-ranked Hoyas, even in front of a home crowd at Wells Fargo Center, with a shot at sending it to overtime on the final possession, is hardly a reason to panic. Coupling it with a defeat three days earlier on the road to a Providence team with one Big East win? Maybe not panic, but something related to it.
"Up in Providence, we weren't even in the game,'' Wright recalled after the Georgetown loss Saturday. "We got hammered up there. We're not happy about it ... (But) it's all of our responsibilities, our team, our staff -- we can't get into these funks. In this league, it can go for a while.''
Georgetown (16-5, 5-4), loser of four of its first five Big East games, knows the feeling, but the Hoyas are now over .500 in the conference for the first time this season. They got a masterful performance from Austin Freeman, whose game-high 30 points only scratch the surface of how vital he was to the narrow win.
He scored 10 of Georgetown's final 12 points over the final 4:59, including three spectacular plays that gave the Hoyas just enough cushion: a putback of his own miss in the lane with 1:41 left, a long jumper from in front of his bench with the shot clock winding down and 40.9 seconds left and a near-blind pass out of a trap near midcourt to Nate Lubick for a dunk with 24.9 seconds left. Each came with Villanova trailing by one point.
More Coverage: Freeman Carries Georgetown Past Villanova
Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/01/29/villanova-latest-big-east-team-to-hit-skid/
Chase Carey Jeff Gordon Bernie Ecclestone Jeff Urban George Pyne
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