Porter’s free throws lift Hoyas to an ugly win It suited Georgetown just fine that the deciding points of a 52-50 victory over pesky Rutgers came at the free throw line.
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It was the only place the Hoyas were able to score consistently all afternoon.
Freshman Otto Porter stepped to the line with the score tied and 8.5 seconds remaining and hit a pair of free throws on Georgetown’s 35th and 36th attempts of the contest. Eli Carter (game-high 14 points) then missed a potential game-tying runner for the Scarlet Knights (11-9, 3-4 Big East) as the buzzer sounded, signaling the Hoyas’ third win in a row and 10th in 11 tries over Rutgers.
“It relieved a lot of pressure, and I was just able to hit them,” said Porter (nine points, four rebounds), who had Georgetown’s final six points.
Celebrations ensued for the crowd of 12,852 at Verizon Center even though the Hoyas (16-3, 6-2) had the second-worst shooting performance of coach John Thompson III’s eight-year tenure. While they got 25 points at the line, the Hoyas shot a season-low 29.3 percent, with their 12 field goals on 41 attempts matching the lowest number of made baskets in a victory by any team this season. Harvard made 12 shots in a 46-41 win over Florida State on Nov. 25.
“I didn’t look at that box score at halftime,” Thompson said after his team went into the break having missed 20 of 23 shots. “Our defense won the game for us. Our defense enabled us to hang around, to withstand a day when we were not good offensively.”
Greg Whittington, who had missed a layup in the first half, became the first Georgetown player to hit more than one field goal when he scored seven points in a row, the last on a 3-pointer that tied the score at 38-38 with 10:16 left.
Georgetown took a 45-43 lead after Porter hit one of two free throws, then went scoreless for three minutes. Carter’s 3-pointer gave Rutgers a 50-45 lead with 2:33 remaining. But Nate Lubick forced a steal, Jason Clark (11 points) drew an offensive foul and the Hoyas combined defensively to force a lengthy miss from Myles Mack on the visitors’ next three possessions.
“We know that there’s going to be days like this, and if we just keep playing defense, we can pull out wins,” Clark said. “I’ve had that feeling about our team this whole year. We’ve been in some tight games, and there’s always been a feeling that we’re not going to lose this game.”
Mike Poole then fouled Porter off the ball, leaving Rutgers coach Mike Rice frustrated afterward.
“Just playing hard doesn’t always work, and again when it comes down to the last four minutes you just can’t get in your own way,” Rice said. “But it was interesting the last two minutes that it was decided by a whistle by a certain individual referee who decided to take it upon himself to decide the game.”
