Brooks’ monster game nearly propels Friars
On a day when Providence’s lone bona-fide star, Marshon Brooks, put on an absolute monster performance, Georgetown got the little bit it needed from everyone to outlast the Friars and extend its unbeaten run to six games with an 83-81 victory in front of 16,289 at Verizon Center.
After pouring in a career-high 43 points, Brooks got the ball with 5.5 seconds left and a chance to win or tie but was stripped by Chris Wright, fell and hit his head on the court. Wright also landed on his back with the ball. He appeared to motion for a timeout even though the Hoyas didn’t have one but was saved from a technical foul by the buzzer.
“I think everybody in the gym knew he was going to shoot the ball,” said Wright (16 points, five assists). “I kind of left my man, and I just had my eyes on the ball and tried to make the play.”
As for the apparent timeout call, Wright said, “I don’t remember.”
But the Hoyas (18-5, 7-4 Big East) won’t soon forget Brooks, who scored the most points this season by a Big East player, the most points by a Georgetown opponent during coach John Thompson III’s seven-year tenure and the fifth-most points ever in a Big East game. He also tied the career high of one of Providence’s most notable alumni, former Hoyas coach John Thompson Jr.
“He scores in every way possible,” Thompson III said. “He can score in the post. He can take you off the bounce both ways. He’s got range. He’s a good player who was having one of those special days.”
Brooks had 24 of his team’s 34 points in the first half, but that was no match for the eight first-half 3-pointers that propelled Georgetown to a 12-point halftime lead. Jason Clark (18 points) hit all four of his attempts in the half and his first seven shots overall, the last a spin and layup in the lane to give the Hoyas their biggest lead at 52-34 just after the break.
The Friars (14-10, 3-8) clawed back despite a winless conference road record, holding Georgetown without a 3 in the second half, but the Hoyas countered inside with Julian Vaughn (14 points, career-high 11 rebounds), whose monster slam and foul kept the lead at 66-61.
A four-point play from Brooks and a three-point play from Duke Mondy (19 points) brought Providence to within a possession of the lead, but Wright and Austin Freeman (23 points) converted eight of Georgetown’s final 10 free throw attempts after the team had missed 10 of its first 17.
