COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Iverson Shoots, Reid Scores, Georgetown Wins

Georgetown and North Carolina advanced to the Southeast regional semifinals Sunday, setting up their first NCAA tournament meeting since the 1982 championship classic.

But for the sixth-seeded Hoyas, their 53-51 victory over Weber State had a more 1983 look.

Freshman guard Allen Iverson launched a three-point attempt that missed short, but senior forward Don Reid caught the ball and flipped it over his head, off the backboard and in as time expired.

The play was reminiscent of the ’83 championship game, when North Carolina State’s Lorenzo Charles slammed home Dereck Whittenburg’s errant jumper before the buzzer to beat Houston.

Reid’s acrobatic basket set off a celebration as Hoya Coach John Thompson thrust both fists in the air and pumped his legs.

“I’m at the point in my career where I want to enjoy the moment,” Thompson said. “I was happy for myself and I also was extremely happy for them.”

It is the first time the Hoyas (21-9) advanced to the round of 16 since 1989. It’s also the first time since the school joined the Big East Conference in 1979-80 that it has lasted past the second round of the NCAAs in a season in which it didn’t win the league title.

Georgetown will face second-seeded North Carolina on Thursday in Birmingham, Ala.

(The Tar Heels and Hoyas have met one other time in the 13 years since Michael Jordan’s jump shot sent North Carolina to the 1982 championship and propelled the freshman guard to stardom. In the 1989-90 season, Georgetown beat North Carolina, 93-81, in the ACC-Big East Challenge.)

One of the reasons Georgetown kept losing in the second round recently was the competition, which has included eventual national champion Arkansas last year and finalist UNLV in 1991. On Sunday, it got 14th-seeded Weber State, but that didn’t make the job any easier.

The game began as a potential mismatch with the Hoyas scoring the first 10 points. But the Wildcats (21-9) of the Big Sky Conference answered with 13 in a row and the teams were locked in a tight battle the rest of the way.

“We came out the first couple of minutes trapping right away and they couldn’t handle it,” said Georgetown junior center Othella Harrington, who scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds. “I guess we got content with what was going on and got a little lethargic.”

On the game-winning play, junior forward Jerome Williams grabbed the rebound and passed to Iverson, who raced downcourt and pulled up for a three-point shot from the left side. As the shot fell back toward the court, Reid swooped in unchecked from the right and in one motion caught the ball and flipped it in.