STORRS, Conn. – Otto Porter didn’t need to score 33 points on Wednesday night, although like on Saturday he did have a much better second half than first half. Georgetown won the game after many twists and turns. And while Porter didn’t need to be a hero by scoring as many points, he was still the one who made the play that counted the most when the game was on the line.
It wasn’t a memorable individual game, but no one who was at Gampel Pavilion on Wendesday night will forget Georgetown’s 79-78 win over Connecticut in double overtime where they scored the last eight points, five coming from Porter.
“It was very memorable for me,” said head coach John Thompson III, then looking over at Porter. “It’s going to be memorable for you, too, right? (Porter) makes winning plays.”
The sophomore forward certainly did that on Wednesday night, scoring five of his team-high 22 points when they mattered most. With the Hoyas down 78-71 with over two minutes to go in the second overtime, they didn’t have the momentum and it looked like they might lose a game they once seemingly had in the bag. Porter hit a three-pointer to get them within four, and after a Connecticut turnover, a three-pointer by emerging freshman D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and another Husky turnover, Porter got the ball and headed up the court.
Porter noted that he was first trying to get the stop before he worried about trying to score. He sliced through the defense, went across the lane and finished on the right side to put Georgetown up 79-78. When Ryan Boatright’s desperation three-pointer in front of the Husky bench missed, the Hoyas had finally pulled out a game that they once led by 12 with 4:36 left.
“We got the ball to the right person, and he got the ball to the rim,” said Thompson.
The Hoyas have had two bad first halves in a row, as they shot 23.3 percent in the first half of Saturday’s win at Syracuse before a 50 percent second half led them to victory. On Wednesday night, they shot 28.6 percent in the first half and trailed Connecticut 22-19. In the second half, they couldn’t miss, or at least it seemed that way at times. They shot over 58 percent, including 8-12 from long range. On the night they ended up shooting 11-20 on three-pointers.
One big difference was that it wasn’t one Hoya who took over in the second half to lead the way on Wednesday night. Porter did most of his damage in the second half, but he wasn’t alone. What they did, quite simply, was run their offense. They moved the ball exceptionally well, as Connecticut couldn’t limit them like they did in the first half.
“Offensively, we were kind of stagnant, we were just looking at each other,” Thompson said of the first half struggles. “In the second half, I think we got more movement, and the guys, I think did a better job of getting (Porter) the ball.”
While Porter led the way, he had help from Markel Starks (19 points) for one, and Smith-Rivera continued to emerge with 14 points, going 3-4 from deep. And while Porter scored the winning basket, Thompson was quick to point out that Mikael Hopkins did well to seal his man off to allow Porter less resistance going to the basket. Nate Lubick filled the stat sheet as usual with nine points and team highs with seven rebounds and six assists.
Smith-Rivera will jump out most of all from the stats as far as improving players go on this team. Since Greg Whittington was declared academically ineligible for the second semester, Smith-Rivera has seven of his nine double figure scoring games. He had a 33-point outing at DePaul last week among them, and he’s figuring more into what they do all the time.
But there is also Porter, who is now averaging over 18 points a game in Big East play and has posted six of his seven 20-point games this season in Whittington’s absence. He also did it at the biggest time of the game on Wednesday night to keep both the Hoyas’ lead in the Big East and their winning streak (now at ten games) intact.
