The Orange beat Georgetown 98-94 Saturday afternoon in a battle between two teams on different levels of desperation. Georgetown needed a win to stay relevant in the tournament conversations and SU needed a win to stop its most recent slide.  

The Orange was up 66-50 with eight minutes left before the Hoyas mounted a comeback, reducing the lead to eight points with less than two, and later tying it on a Chris Wright 3-pointer in front of 31,000 strong. SU gathered its composure and put Georgetown away in overtime, giving the Hoyas their fifth consecutive loss at the dome while the students stayed off the court.

Shortly after Kristof Ongenaet was ejected for elbowing DaJuan Summers in the head, Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf came alive, cranking up the volume on the offense. The backcourt tandem combined for 41 points in the second half and overtime after totaling just seven in the first frame. Flynn also finished with a career high of 13 assists. He channeled his confidence in a way that we haven’t seen for awhile and played about a foot and a half taller than he was on his drives, and skied for a big rebound late in the extra period. The point guard also threaded the needle beautifully all afternoon, and except for his last-second bounce pass attempt, made excellent decisions all over the floor.

On the ejection, I am befuddled as to how that came to be the ruling. I understand that a lot of elbows have been flying around all season and that the refs need to crack down before things get even more out of hand, but what happened Saturday was complete overkill. I can fathom a personal foul being called, but surely not an ejection. Where were the whistles on Wednesday night in Storrs? It boggles the mind. Is it to establish this new position that elbows will no longer be tolerated and Kristof is just a martyr in all of this? Who knows.

Also, I’m not a huge believer in superstitions, but I can’t avoid pointing out the coincidence that Donte Greene was in attendance at a game that bore such a striking resemblance to the contests that epitomized the SU season during which he played. Greene, who was positioned closer to the basket as a spectator than he was last season as a player, had his NBA All-Star Weekend clear after missing the cut for the rookie-sophomore game, three-point shootout and the big game scheduled for Sunday. Who knew?

Back to the game, Arinze Onuaku held his own and then some in the paint. Recovering from tendonitis, AO literally had some bounce back in his step and looked a lot like his old self, making high-percentage shots and using his strength to get position on the glass. The big guy also converted on both ends of a trip to the stripe for the first time since the Canisius game, and the Orange-Out crowd erupted.

Unfortunately, Paul Harris is still struggling offensively. He put up a modest line of nine points and five rebounds, and hasn’t cracked double digits in seven of SU’s last eight games. On the other end of that spectrum, you have Devo, who has now scored at least 20 in five of his last six, so at least the slack is being picked up. For all of his faults, and he has many, it’s pretty spectacular that he can gather himself and cool his nerves in the blink of an eye and bury the deciding trey.

The Orange now have a long break until next Sunday, as they’ll prepare to avenge another loss, this one to Villanova. The layover will be just what the doctor ordered for Arinze Onuaku as he can continue to heal and get ready for the home stretch.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm by Brian G. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.