Standing in the lobby of McDonough Arena last week, Georgetown coach John Thompson III was asked about the importance of his team’s upcoming games against two of the best in the Big East, Butler and Villanova.
The veteran coach, ever cognizant of the ebb and flow of a long season, downplayed them.
“The beauty of our league this year,” Thompson said, “is you will have opportunities for resume-boosting wins.”
The Hoyas got one such win perhaps a bit earlier than anticipated Monday night. Led by a dominant defensive performance, they jumped out to a sizeable first-half lead against No. 4 Villanova and maintained that advantage to complete the stunning upset, 78-58.
Fans spilled onto the court, bottlenecking at the base of each basket, to celebrate the team’s best conference win of the season so far. The Hoyas improved to 5-2 in the Big East and 13-5 overall. But Thompson could have done without the court-storming.
“The kids, the fans, the students — they watch a lot of TV. So they’re excited. They storm the court,” Thompson said. “I probably wish that they hadn’t done that, but they watch a lot of TV.”
After hitting the go-ahead three in the closing seconds of the team’s previous 61-59 victory over Butler on Saturday, freshman Isaac Copeland set a new career-high with 17 points off the bench against the Wildcats. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera also scored 17, while Jabril Trawick finished with 10 points, two blocks, four steals and, in Thompson’s estimation, several game-changing plays that can’t be quantified.
“You asked the question about Isaac following up the Butler game with what he did today. It’s the same thing here [with Trawick],” Thompson said. “It’s two outstanding games in a row, selfless games, plays that make you win that may not show up on this piece of paper right here.”
Earlier Monday, Villanova (17-2, 4-2) had moved up one spot to No. 4 in The Associated Press’ weekly poll. Yet from the opening tip, it was the Hoyas who played like the ranked team.
Still riding the high of its weekend win over Butler, Georgetown jumped out to an 11-4 lead and soon thereafter went on a 17-0 run. The Hoyas held the conference’s No. 2 offense scoreless for more than seven minutes. Copeland had eight points off the bench during that span, and senior Aaron Bowen added five.
“They always say defense translates to offense,” Copeland said. “So obviously we kept them from scoring baskets, and we got open shots on our end. That helped us out.”
By the end of the first half, Georgetown had built a comfortable 42-20 advantage, with six players recording five points or more. The Wildcats, in contrast, had six field goals and 10 turnovers.
“We’ve done this before — gotten down, got a little sloppy offensively — and we’ve been able to overcome it,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “This team was too good. This atmosphere was too good to overcome playing like that.”
Georgetown’s lead began to shrink in the second half as Ryan Arcidiacono (16 points) sparked the Wildcats with his 3-point shooting, knocking down his three straight attempts from behind the arc. Then, roughly midway through the half, the game slowed to a crawl, surpassing the two-hour mark as the fouls piled up. Seven players finished with four fouls or more, a total of 51 in all.
Given the lopsided nature of the game, however, that pace seemed to suit Georgetown just fine. While the Wildcats ramped up their offensive efforts in a frantic attempt to close their deficit, the Hoyas took their time and got to the line. Their lead ballooned again, hitting 20 points in the final minute as the starters were called to the bench and the reserves entered, followed soon by streams of fans and students.
Shortly afterward, Thompson was asked whether the upset says anything in particular about his team. “I’m not sure what it says about us,” he replied dryly. The 48-year-old was then asked if the win will changes his expectations for the season. Again, he was succinct.
“Nope.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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