Georgetown 84, West Virginia 82, OT
WASHINGTON (AP)—Mike Sweetney matched a career high with 35 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to lead Georgetown to an 84-82 overtime victory over West Virginia on Sunday.
Tony Bethel’s two free throws with 6.2 seconds left gave Georgetown a four-point lead. Jarmon Durisseau-Collins cut the deficit to two with three seconds remaining, but Georgetown ran out the clock.
Bethel made a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining in regulation to tie it at 74 for Georgetown (9-2, 1-0 Big East) and send the game into overtime.
Drew Schifino led West Virginia (9-4, 1-1) with 25 points, but the Mountaineers were not able to hold a five-point lead in the final minute.
Georgetown coach Craig Esherick, usually soft-spoken and reserved, unleashed a tirade in his postgame news conference to complain about abuse against Sweetney.
“Just because Mike is 6-8, 260 doesn’t mean he doesn’t hurt when he gets fouled and doesn’t mean it’s not a foul,” Esherick said. “It is a foul and Mike should go to the foul line 50 times if it’s a foul.”
Once in overtime, Sweetney scored six of Georgetown’s 10 points and made a crucial steal from Kevin Pittsnogle with one minute to play and Georgetown protected its 82-80 lead. Sweetney also had five blocks, four assists, three steals. His eight offensive rebounds were a big part of Georgetown’s 28 second-chance points.
West Virginia, which trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, took its first lead of the half at 66-65 after Pittsnogle made one of his four 3-pointers. The Mountaineers pushed the lead to five on two free throws by Johannes Herber with 1:02 remaining.
But a late turnover by West Virginia gave Bethel and the Hoyas a chance to tie in the closing seconds of regulation.
Sweetney was a dominant force in the first half as well, scoring nine points during a 13-1 first half run that helped the Hoyas take a 34-28 halftime lead. Sweetney made nine of 13 from the foul line.
Georgetown grabbed 20 offensive rebounds, but were outshot 30-26 from the foul line.
The Mountaineers didn’t make a two-point field goal during the first 10 minutes of the game.
