To me, the turning point in this game began just 2 1/2 minutes into it.
Georgetown's strategy was to take Oden out of the mix and dominate us inside to Hibbert, and it didn't work for two reasons.
Much maligned on this board during the season, Twigs came in and continued his stellar performance in the NCAA. He did a great job and Green especially seemed surprised. Twigs doesn't do that, we don't win.
More importantly, our tenacious defense completely unsettled them. Twelve points off turnovers in the first half was huge. Those guys don't do that and Georgetown starts cutting us to shreds, instead Georgetown can't hold on to the ball and Buckeyes are flying everywhere. Losing Oden forced us to take Georgetown out of the half court game. We ran with the ball and they couldn't. We penetrated repeatedly for relatively easy buckets and drew the fouls on Hibbert.
And when Georgetown adjusted and came back at the start of the second half, we did it again. Losing Hibbert at the very moment that Oden came back in was an incredible challenge to which Georgetown did not rise. Having adjusted to try to stop our guard play, they had no answer inside.
But the real key to our win in my mind is that we played the best defense I have seen this team play.
One more time, guys, one more time.
Georgetown's strategy was to take Oden out of the mix and dominate us inside to Hibbert, and it didn't work for two reasons.
Much maligned on this board during the season, Twigs came in and continued his stellar performance in the NCAA. He did a great job and Green especially seemed surprised. Twigs doesn't do that, we don't win.
More importantly, our tenacious defense completely unsettled them. Twelve points off turnovers in the first half was huge. Those guys don't do that and Georgetown starts cutting us to shreds, instead Georgetown can't hold on to the ball and Buckeyes are flying everywhere. Losing Oden forced us to take Georgetown out of the half court game. We ran with the ball and they couldn't. We penetrated repeatedly for relatively easy buckets and drew the fouls on Hibbert.
And when Georgetown adjusted and came back at the start of the second half, we did it again. Losing Hibbert at the very moment that Oden came back in was an incredible challenge to which Georgetown did not rise. Having adjusted to try to stop our guard play, they had no answer inside.
But the real key to our win in my mind is that we played the best defense I have seen this team play.
One more time, guys, one more time.
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