PORTLAND — Eastern Washington came into Thursday’s second round of the NCAA tournament with big expectations.
By the end of the night, the Eagles were only left with big disappointment after Georgetown dismantled them 84-74 led by 25 points and eight rebounds from D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera.
Eagles’ head coach Jim Hayford went as far as to guarantee a win during an appearance on The Jim Rome Show.
Given the opportunity to take it back though, Hayford stood by his words.
“No, not at all,” Hayford said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to play this team without my team having full confidence.”
Word of Hayford’s guarantee had made it back to the Hoyas.
“You know, he guaranteed victory,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson III. “And you know, maybe, it’s just me, but when I think of that, I think of Joe Namath, I thin of Muhammad Ali, I think the Larry Bird and the 3-point shooting contest. The kids brought it to me and said, their coach guaranteed victory.
Thompson continued, pulling no punches: “I kind of looked down there at him. Thought he didn’t fit the bill, guys that usually guarantee victory.”
But after the Eagles led by as much as seven in the first half, the Hoyas’ athleticism, length and depth took over.
“Those are some long guys that you’re shooting over, they play very smart,” Hayford said.
“In the post, you’re facing 6’10” athletic guys you don’t see in the Big Sky,” EWU forward Venky Jois said.
EWU guard Tyler Harvey, the nation’s leading scorer, finished with 27 points. But he looked dead tired by the end of the night as the Hoyas wore him down as he played nearly the whole game.
The Hoyas had a 45-21 bench scoring advantage as they played 10-deep and barely played starting center Josh Smith, who logged just six minutes.
Conversely, the Eagles, who were played with a short eight-man rotation, had only eight points off the bench.
The Eagles were a popular upset pick by many both because of Harvey’s excellence and the fact that the higher-seeded Hoyas had to fly across the country to play a relatively local team.
The crowd at the Moda Center was decidedly pro-Eastern but the Hoyas seemed unfazed.
The second half started with everything coming up Hoyas as they made their own luck. Loose balls, missed shots, everything went Georgetown’s way.
The Eagles could only struggle, finding themselves down by 18 with 15:23 left in the game.
The Georgetown lead got as high as 20.
The Eagles cut the Hoyas’ lead to 10 with under three minutes left and forced four straight turnovers.
Eastern cut the Georgetown lead to as low as seven points in the last minute but they could not get a shot to fall.
They shot 40 percent from long-range on the season but were just 9-of-28 (32 percent) while the Hoyas were 11-for-23.
No. 5 Utah 57, No. 12 Stephen F. Austin 50 — Both Utah and Stephen F. Austin came into the game as some of the nation’s most efficient offensive teams. Stephen F. Austin got a short 4-0 run to close the first half to be down just seven points after shooting a brutal 35 percent in the first half and 27.3 percent from long-range.
Center Jakob Poeltl was a game-changing presence for the Utes in the 2nd half. He also worked his way into good scoring position around the basket which helped Utah’s offense and finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.
SFA continued to turn up the defensive pressure as their fans were a presence the whole game. Steven F. Austin cut the lead to two points in the final minutes but Utah held on as Poeltl fittingly blocked one of the ‘Jacks’ final 3-point attempts.
Guard Thomas Walkup hit some tough shots, scoring 10 of his 12 in the 2nd half to go along with nine rebounds and five assists for SFA.
