Hoya Paranoia Cured
July 09, 2003 09:39 PM | General
January 28, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.VA. (Jan. 5, 1998) – Forgive West Virginia University basketball forward Damian Owens for having a little Hoya Paranoia.
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| West Virginia forward Damian Owens finally got the monkey off his back against Georgetown. (WVU Sports Communications) |
After all his teams had lost two hotly contested games against Georgetown at the WVU Coliseum in 1995 and 1997, and four in a row since the two resumed annual combat when the Mountaineers joined the Big East for the 1995-96 season.
Husky Georgetown coach John Thompson owned a personal five-game winning streak against West Virginia. The streak began 23 years earlier in 1975 when his squad downed Joedy Gardner’s Mountaineer team, 62-61 in the ECAC tournament in Morgantown when guard Derrick Jackson hit a dramatic last-second shot.
Although Thompson brought a young and inexperienced team to the WVU Coliseum for a game against the No. 21-rated Mountaineers on Jan. 5, 1998, his team already owned a victory over West Virginia just six days earlier.
In that game at Georgetown, 5-10 guard Kenny Brunner led five Hoya double-digit scorers with 15 points in a 74-65 victory. West Virginia was destroyed on the boards, 51-30 and shot just 34.2 percent from the floor.
Georgetown was one of just two Big East teams West Virginia had not yet defeated. The other was No. 6-rated Connecticut.
In some ways, defeating Georgetown had almost become an obsession to 6-6, 210-pound Owens. Every year since West Virginia’s first loss to the Hoyas in 1995, Owens had to hear it from his friends when he went home for the summers.
“Why can’t you guys beat Georgetown?” they asked.
Owens took the losses hard. He was one of the top prep players in Washington, D.C., and played in the Capital Classic all-star game in 1994, but was not recruited by local powers Georgetown and Maryland because they thought he wasn’t tall enough to play the four spot.
So with his pride wounded, Owens signed to play at West Virginia in the Atlantic 10 Conference. A year later however, the Mountaineers became a full-fledged member of the Big East. Now Owens had an opportunity to show Georgetown what they missed out on.
Owens scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in his first meeting against Georgetown on Dec. 2, 1995 in Morgantown, but committed seven turnovers as the Hoyas clipped the Mountaineers by three in overtime.
Owens tallied 11 points and hauled down three rebounds in a 24-point loss later that year at U.S. Air Arena, and managed just four points on one-of-eight shooting in a two-point loss to Georgetown a year later on Jan. 2, 1997. Not only had his teams lost to Georgetown, but he was partly to blame.
Another loss to the Hoyas came the following year during the 1997-98 season. That defeat snapped a six-game West Virginia win streak that had boosted its overall record to 11-2 and a top 25 national rating.
Despite the nine-point loss to the Hoyas, Owens played considerably better. He scored 18 points, hauled down nine rebounds and had four steals.
It was now six days later.
A rambunctious crowd of 10,091 and the bright television lights of ESPN “Big Monday” greeted Georgetown for this important Big East game in Morgantown. ESPN’s Mike Tirico and Bill Raftery were courtside to handle the call. The Hoyas edged Providence, 56-54 at home just two days earlier on Saturday, and owned an 8-4 record.
West Virginia used Boston College as a tuneup for the Georgetown rematch, whipping the Eagles by 22 at the Coliseum the same time Georgetown was beating Providence. Georgetown came out on fire, jumping out to a 19-7 lead by the 12:27 mark and having little trouble against the constant pressure defense that had become West Virginia’s trademark.
It was at that point that West Virginia coach Gale Catlett decided to go away from his bread-and-butter pressure defense and play zone. WVU slowly crawled back into the basketball game, even though Georgetown was still hurting the Mountaineers with three-point shots.
“If you make them set up in the halfcourt offense and pass the ball around some, you have a shot,” Catlett explained. “If they don’t, they’re great at taking the ball to the basket. They take the ball to the basket as well as any team I’ve ever coached against.”
By halftime, West Virginia had whittled the Georgetown lead to just five points when Owens canned a three-point basket with 19.4 seconds left. Owens was not known for his three-point shooting and the basket gave West Virginia a big lift at the break.
West Virginia took control in the first four minutes of the second half, outscoring Georgetown 10-4 to take its first lead of the game, 43-42 after a Greg Jones three-point jumper.
After Georgetown center Jameel Watkins hit one-of-two free throws to tie the game at 43, West Virginia used an 11-4 spurt to take a 54-47 lead with 11:13 to go. A pair of Owens layups gave West Virginia its first double-digit lead at 11 with 8:50 remaining. The Mountaineers got the margin to 16 on another Owens drive to the basket with 6:11 to go.
Georgetown could never trim its deficit any lower than 11 the rest of the way and lost 81-70 to the fired-up Mountaineers.
Georgetown missed 24 of its 35 second-half shot attempts, including 13-of-15 three-point tries.
“Our defense was magnificent, keeping them on the perimeter most of the time,” Catlett said. “They got some easy ones against us, but I thought the halfcourt defense was really good. That was probably the key to the game.”
Owens was terrific, scoring a game-high 27 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Time after time, Owens made daring drives to the basket where he met mammoth 6-9, 290-pound center Jahidi White head-on. With White in foul trouble, Owens continued to attack the middle of the Georgetown defense. White committed his fifth foul against Owens with 9:01 left, just moments after Owens sailed down the lane for a powerful dunk that brought the WVU student section to near hysteria.
“I don’t think Owens knew White had four fouls,” said Catlett. “But he’s such an aggressive player he took it right into his face. A lot of folks won’t do that. He scares a lot of folks, but he doesn’t scare Owens.”
When the game was over, the first person to fight through the mass of students on the floor to congratulate Owens was Thompson.
“I tried to distract him a little near the end of the game,” joked Thompson. “Since nobody on our team could stop him, I thought I would try.
“He did a little bit of everything,” Thompson added, “he rebounded, he scored, he played hard. I wanted him to end his career never having beaten us, but it didn’t happen.”
For his part, Owens was thankful that the monkey was finally off his back.
“We’ve been waiting three years to do this,” he said. “Coach Thompson knew how much this win meant to me. And after the game, he was the first to put his arm around me.”
Point guard Jarrod West contributed 13 points and off-guard Adrian Pledger added 12. West Virginia shored up its rebounding difficulties against Georgetown and were only out-rebounded, 44-39
WVU’s stifling defense forced Georgetown to commit 16 turnovers.
Brunner scored 12 and White added 10 for the Hoyas. West Virginia shot 52.6 percent for the game; Georgetown managed to connect on 27-of-69 shot attempts for a 39.1 percentage.
West Virginia 81, Georgetown 70
Georgetown (8-4)
Kilpatrick 1-8 6-6 8, Aw 1-3 0-1 2, White 5-9 0-0 10, Brunner 5-15 0-0 12, Long 1-5 2-3 5, Watkins 3-6 1-2 7, Jackson 3-5 1-4 7, Touomou 1-2 0-0 2, Berry 3-8 0-0 8, Gibson 1-3 0-1 2, Burton 3-5 0-0 7. Totals 27-69 10-17 70.
West Virginia (13-2)
Owens 12-18 1-5 27, Solheim 3-5 1-2 7, Lewin 2-4 3-5 7, Pledger 5-11 2-2 12, West 3-7 6-8 13, Goree 2-4 2-6 6, Jones 3-7 2-4 9, Kearse 0-1 0-0 0, Beynon 0-0 0-0 0, Berry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-57 17-32 81.
Halftime-Georgetown 38-33. Fouled out- White, Solheim. Three-Point Field Goals- Georgetown 6-25 (Kilpatrick 0-3, Brunner 2-7, Long 1-3, Jackson 0-2, Touomou 0-1, Berry 2-6, Burton 1-3); West Virginia 4-10 (Owens 2-3, Pledger 0-1, West 1-3, Jones 1-3) Rebounds-Georgetown 39 (Kilpatrick 3, Aw 3, White 8, Brunner 3, Long 4, Watkins 3, Jackson 4, Toumou 1, Gibson 4, Burton 1); West Virginia 39 (Owens 12, Solheim 1, Lewin 8, Pledger 4, West 2, Goree 3, Jones 2, Kearse 1). Assists-Georgetown 14 (Kilpatrick 1, Aw 1, Brunner 5, Long 5, Jackson 1, Burton 1), West Virginia 18 (Owens 6, Solheim 3, Lewin 1, Pledger 3, West 3, Jones 1, Kearse 1). Total fouls-Georgetown 25, West Virginia 18.
Technicals- None.
Attendance – 10,091.
