Ewing preserves Hoyas’ win

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The final play last night at WVU Coliseum qualifies as either larceny or legend.

Swiping a comeback victory on the shoulders of two gargantuan stretch-run plays, No. 9 Georgetown (16-2, 6-1) posted a stunning 58-57 victory over West Virginia to maintain first place in the Big East.

Few plays this season are likely to log as many second looks or cause more controversy than the one that ended last night’s action.

With a sellout crowd of 14,048 fans watching in breathless silence, the Mountaineers’ Da’Sean Butler drove the baseline and tossed up what looked to be a certain game-winning floater from four feet with less than two seconds left.

But just when it looked like West Virginia (15-5, 4-3) would run its recent record at the Coliseum to 44-3, Hoyas senior forward Patrick Ewing Jr. bounded off the floor from just inside the foul line and swatted away Butler’s shot at the buzzer.

In real time, Ewing’s play looked like a goaltending violation, and such a play would be no surprise from the son of the Georgetown legend who opened the 1982 NCAA title game by intentionally goaltending a handful of North Carolina attempts. But there was no whistle from the closest official, Pat Driscoll, and multiple viewings of the replay were inconclusive.

Without the benefit of replay, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins chased Driscoll off the court, sidestepping a scrum of celebrating Hoyas along the baseline and screaming his case at Driscoll, who never stopped shaking his head in defiance as he made his hasty egress amid a chorus of boos.

“As hard as the kids played, it’s a shame that it came down to something like that,” said Huggins, still fuming minutes later. “It’s frustrating. You hate to lose when you should have won. Let’s be honest.”

But the Mountaineers should have won with or without a whistle from Driscoll. Behind some impressive 3-point shooting from Darris Nichols (16 points) and Alex Ruoff (13 points), West Virginia took a 37-27 lead shortly after halftime.

And aside from a brief stretch midway through the second half, when West Virginia saw an ill-advised switch to a man-to-man defense shredded by the Hoyas, the Mountaineers kept the Hoyas off-balance with zone defense and dictated the slow pace of play.

Even though West Virginia had no answers for Georgetown center Roy Hibbert (12 points, 10 assists), the Hoyas routinely lost track of their big man and struggled to execute rudimentary entry passes. As a result, Hibbert finished with only six field goal attempts, his fewest in league play this season.

But thanks to some scrappy defense and West Virginia’s atrocious free throw shooting (12-for-23), the Hoyas trailed by only one point at 56-55 when junior Jessie Sapp (15 points) converted a pair of free throws with 39 seconds left.

After Nichols made only one of two free throws at the other end nine seconds later, Sapp again took center stage.

As the shot clock wound down, Sapp attempted to run a play for senior Jon Wallace, who kept darting behind screens from Hibbert but never found a clear opening.

With less than 10 seconds left, Sapp gave up on the play and took charge, driving on Ruoff at the top of the key and then deftly stepping back in the created space to hit a 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left, to give the Hoyas one of their few leads of the game and set up Ewing’s big moment.

It was a reprise of Sapp’s heroics from earlier in the week, when he scored seven consecutive points down the stretch to lead the Hoyas to a comeback victory over Syracuse in overtime.

“That’s who he is,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said of Sapp’s uncanny knack of delivering in the clutch. “I have a lot of confidence in him. His teammates have a lot of confidence in him. Sapp makes big plays. … I’m glad he’s wearing blue and gray.”

Hoyas report

Last night at WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, W.Va.

BY THE NUMBERS

5-15 Combined Big East record of Georgetown’s next three opponents. Over the next 10 days, Georgetown plays St. John’s (1-6), Seton Hall (3-3) and South Florida (1-6).

52.2 Free throw shooting percentage for West Virginia in the game’s deciding statistic. The Mountaineers made just 12 of 23 free throws and missed six free tosses in the second half.

SEEN AND HEARD

Georgetown center Roy Hibbert moved into the top 20 on the school’s career scoring list last night, posting 12 points to pass Jon Smith (1,255 points) and Robert Churchwell (1,256) and reach the 19th slot in program history at 1,258 points. In Georgetown’s last six games, the 7-foot-2 senior is averaging 16.2 points.

— Barker Davis