Georgetown Wins as Price Is Wrong for Georgia Tech

Empire-building was never easy in the best of times, and Georgetown’s Hoyas, those would-be dynasts, saw it all nearly come tumbling down about them.

Trailing by four points in the second half, Patrick Ewing resting uneasily on the sideline, the Hoyas didn’t need a history lesson to know that dynasties can come apart even in the making. So they dug down and used everything at their disposal--including Horace Broadnax, Grady Mateen and even a little luck.

And, in the end, Georgetown beat Georgia Tech, 60-54, Saturday afternoon in the East Regional final and is headed back to the Final Four, its chance to repeat as NCAA basketball champion still alive. But what might have been.

“It could have been us,” said Mark Price, Georgia Tech’s best player.

Yes, it could have been. All Tech would have needed was the real Mark Price on the court, not the one who took 16 shots, made only three and scored only 13 points.

“I’m the one responsible,” said the 6-1 junior guard, a renowned sharpshooter whose jump shot would not go. “I let my team down.”

No one is likely to have any better chance at Georgetown (34-2 and winner of 16 in a row) than did Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets led, 40-36, with 11:16 to play. Ewing, the All-American center, was on the bench with four fouls. At that point, Ralph Dalton, Ewing’s backup, joined him there, also with four fouls.

Ewing cast an anxious eye at this coach, but John Thompson sent Mateen, a freshman, into the game.

“Sure, we were concerned,” said Reggie Williams, whose free throws in the clutch saved the win for Georgetown. “This is a single-elimination tournament. One game and you go home. And we had some problems.”

A minute later, Georgetown had more problems. Michael Jackson, the Hoyas’ playmaker, picked up his fourth foul. Georgia Tech led, 42-38, and seemed ready to take control.

And then, somehow, it all came apart.

David Wingate hit a jumper, and Georgia Tech’s Antoine Ford, a freshman reserve center, turned the ball over. Broadnax, who came in for Jackson, hit a layup to tie the game. And after another turnover by Ford, Broadnax hit two free throws and Georgetown had the lead, 44-42.

Tech would have some chances again, but never the chance it just had. Price continued to miss his jump shot, and Georgia Tech had to watch Georgetown cut down another in a series of nets.

No one has repeated in the NCAA basketball tournament since UCLA did it in 1973, but Georgetown needs only two wins at Lexington, Ky., next weekend to end the 12 years of college basketball anarchy.

The Hoyas will next play the winner of today’s game between St. John’s and North Carolina State. Either of those two would love to be in the position Georgia Tech was in Saturday.

After some early volleying, Georgetown had taken a 29-21 lead late in the first half and seemed to have the game in hand. The Hoyas had come out in a box-and-one on Price and were successfully harassing him. Tech’s huge front line--7-0 John Salley and 6-11 Yvon Joseph--could not contend with Ewing offensively or defensively.

But then Thompson, seeing Ewing in mild foul trouble, went into a four-corners offense with five minutes left in the half.

“What I said to do almost backfired,” Thompson said after the game. Thompson had wanted his team to eat some time off the clock, but instead Georgia Tech got a chance to eat into Georgetown’s lead. In fact, Tech got the final eight points of the half to tie the game at 29-29, with Ford, playing in place of Salley, accounting for six points.

Also, Ewing picked up his third foul. And with less than two minutes gone in the second half, Ewing (14 points and four rebounds for the game) was hit with his fourth. He stayed on the bench the next 12 minutes.

Salley began to take advantage, scoring 10 of his 15 points in the second half. And, instead of concentrating on Price, Georgetown had to pack its zone way in, allowing Price to break free. He tried eight shots in the second half and made one.

“I was frustrated, but I still went up with confidence,” Price said. “Why you go 9 for 12 on one night and 3 for whatever the next day, I don’t know.”

He kept on shooting; he had to.

“We rely on him, and he knows we rely on him, but we know he’s human,” teammate Scott Petway said of Price. “He was open. I’ve seen him make shots when he couldn’t see the basket and still hit them.”

Tech made 40% of its shots Saturday, a little better than average for Georgetown’s opponents. But Tech, excluding Price, was 13 for 24.

Reggie Williams, who scored 12, including the big free throws at the end, kept thinking that Price could not be contained forever.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh Lord, Mark’s going to get hot pretty soon,’ ” Williams said. “The shots were there. He was just missing them.”

Williams’ shots were not as difficult, although his teammates might argue the point. Having to foul in the end, Tech kept sending Georgetown to the free-throw line. When Ewing missed two free throws with 3:26 to play, Georgetown had missed four of six and Tech had narrowed the score to 52-50.

Tech had the ball and got it to Price, 18 feet away from the basket on the left side, wide open. The ball hit the front of the rim, and Georgetown got the rebound.

This time, Tech fouled Williams.

“I know we were missing, but I felt comfortable,” said Williams, who hit his two free throws.

After a Petway basket, Williams hit two more free throws. And when finally Price made his lone basket of the second half, Dalton was fouled and made both shots.

And so it will be a long summer of what-ifs for Georgia Tech, which won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship tournament.

Four years ago, Coach Bobby Cremins took over a Georgia Tech team that was winless in the conference. In that time, he put it over the top, the best in the league.

As much as anyone, Price is responsible for that.

After the game, Cremins kept staring at the statistics sheet and shaking his head. Someone asked him what he was looking at. “Three for 16,” he said.

Those were Price’s numbers, of course. And because of them, Tech, best in the ACC, wasn’t best in show. That is left to the Hoyas, who are left to fight another day.

They got there because of defense, tenacity and some clutch free-throw shooting. And, of course, because of their bench, with Dalton getting six points and six rebounds in 25 minutes and Broadnax nine points in 18 minutes.

It was the first of what will be three games between Big East and ACC teams in regional finals. But there was no conference chauvinism evident Saturday at Providence.

From Georgetown, there was only relief.

“People ask me if the players are tired,” Thompson said. “The players are all right. It’s the coach who’s hurting.”