FanPost

Boo-Hoo-Hoosiers: GIFs of the Hoyas' OT Win

Before we move on to previewing Big East matchups, let's take a quick look back at Saturday's ridiculously stressful game against the Indiana Hoosiers. It was the Hoyas their second big non-conference win of the season and gave the Georgetown crowd plenty to yell about in the Garden.

Things got off to an exciting start. Only 35 seconds into the game, Jabril Trawick snagged a pass from Smith and cut directly through Indiana's stationary defenders to throw down a huge dunk. This was a smart play, not a fancy one, from a player who has finally learned to control himself on big stages.

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L.J. Peak added his own creative basket only seconds later, seeing an opportunity and driving all the way from outside the arc to make a circus shot and get the fans even more fired up. He repeated the performance with a driving baseline layup a few minutes later, drawing the foul in the process. Maybe it went to his head a little bit, because while he turned in a decent performance, he was among the players who missed several bunnies throughout the game.

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Mikael Hopkins drew praise from brand-new ESPN commentator Jim Calhoun by playing aggressive defense (blocks! three of them!) and firing home this uncharacteristic targeted hook shot early in the first half. Also, you have to love the team camaraderie shown at the end of that clip. Tyler Adams is awesome.

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Aaron Bowen was another veteran who was playing beyond fans' expectations yesterday. Brought in not long after tipoff, he got started early on another career high and potentially his best game to date. Didn't we just say that last week? With Joshua Smith pulling all defenders (and fouls) to himself, Bowen was able to accelerate his way freely through the Indiana players. Those long, bionic arms swiped the ball and allowed Air Bow to corral it for a breakaway dunk midway through the first, then cut to the basket while accepting a pass from Paul White to complete another soaring layup only seconds later.

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It would seem that being called out by a UConn coach on national television may be what it took to get DSR's head screwed back on straight. Less than a minute after Calhoun declared that, "Smith-Rivera has not really been able to get involved in the Hoyas' offense," he nailed his first three in what felt like years.

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With Joshua Smith in foul trouble, the Hoyas were playing a smaller lineup. One of the freshman took some initiative to remind the Hoosiers that even without Hopkins or Smith in their faces, our lengthy frontcourt is not to be trifled with. Isaac Copeland rejected this shot with about two minutes left to go in the half, drilling the ball about four rows deep into the lap of someone in the crowd. Bowen congratulated him for this effort, but in a way less likely to cause any sort of head trauma...

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The Hoyas went into the half with foul trouble, a 10 point deficit, and an opponent whose three pointers seemed magnetically drawn to the bottom of the net. Seriously, they made SEVEN of them. Our free throw shooting did not help matters. It didn't seem right to panic, though, as the team was not playing badly and Indiana's lead was only magnified by a series of unfortunate rolls off the rim.

The second half started with a Hoosiers dunk, and something flipped in DSR's head. On his first three point attempt in the previous half, the thought process was almost visible. He dribbled, picked up, looked one way for an open shooter, looked the other, faked, then finally seemed to accept the reality of, "shit, this is on me". This time, there was no hesitation on the pass from Trawick. The three was good, followed by another less than a minute later, and one more not long after that. There were assorted pull-up jumpers, and a steal with a layup too. DSR is back, and nobody's happier about it than he is.

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Some questionable rulings were made in both directions, but first Smith picked up 2 fouls in EIGHT SECONDS in the first half. Aaron Bowen got called for being a crash pad. JTIII was incensed by the time the foul on Hopkins got whistled early in the second half. Our generally stoic coach had some succinct thoughts on which end the officiating crew was blowing their whistles out of.

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Joshua Smith finally returned to the game midway through the second half, and the team had a plan. It was clear that even with three defenders around him the (relatively) diminutive Indiana players could not prevent him from getting to the basket. It was also obvious that too much time in the paint would earn him more fouls simply by virtue of taking up more space than his opponents. So Smith spent more time than usual outside the arc, drawing pressure (and defenders) away and opening up space for his teammates to drive to the basket. He played intelligently and maturely. Those 12 points after returning, along with the other upperclassmen's contributions, are the reason that deficit got erased. Smith worked hard, and this third-chance basket sums up the effort and contributions we all hoped his senior season would bring.

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This young Indiana fan was heartbroken after an aggressive layup by Trawick near the end of regulation...

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(Note: I'll be your collective conscience and refuse to show this kid's face, even though it appeared later in the broadcast. I will not put a gif of a crying 10 year-old girl on the internet. Wailing babies are cute. Teary college students can be downright hilarious. But kids, who probably heard about it from their friends within seconds? She already knows she ended up live on ESPN. In the age of DVR, I’m not contributing to the replay. It’s mean.)

Not knowing that Yogi Ferrell's three point shooting was immune to even the tightest perimeter defense. This wasn't like the Radford game where the Hoyas regularly failed to rotate properly and left men uncovered. There's no way those shots should have all been going in, but the Hoosiers tied it up.

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Overtime. Deep breaths. Lots of screaming (ask WarmupEwing how his ears are doing today). Smith hit a jumper. Bowen capped his career-high 22 point performance with a final dunk and FT. Before DSR developed his own identity as a leader on the team, he was compared to Austin Freeman. Today, Smith-Rivera's knockout performance reminded us of that crazy game against UConn in 2010. DSR scored all but 5 of his 29 points after halftime, pouring in another three and several key free throws in overtime. He stepped up.

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Hoyas win. Exhale.

Stay Casual, my friends.