No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast Shocks No. 2 Georgetown

No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast, a team with some players who are older than the school that was established in 1991, shocked No. 2 Georgetown in South Regional 78-70.

The Eagles swaggered, dunked, ran, and soared past Georgetown. They became the eleventh No. 15 seed to defeat a No. 2 seed and the third in the past two years. Brett Comer’s alley-oop to Chase Fieler in the closing minutes brought the house down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as Comer tossed the ball high above the rim after breaking a frenetic Georgetown press and Fieler came running in, elbow above the rim, and jammed the ball home. 

The Georgetown Hoyas suffered yet another humiliating early round exit, this time at the hands of the unheralded Florida-Gulf Coast Eagles. Under John Thompson III, the Hoyas have been defeated by double-digit seeds like No. 14 Ohio and No. 11 VCU.

The first half was a back and forth affair, with the Hoyas taking a 7-point lead before the Eagles came back, tying the game 20-20 at the 4:27 mark of the first half and taking the lead 22-20 less than a minute later.

The Eagles led by two, 24-22 at the half. Georgetown hit only 33% of its shots, and the Eagles outscored the much larger Hoyas in the paint.

The Eagles broke the game open with a 17-1 run in the second half, stretching their lead to 21 at one point and holding a 15 point lead with under 4 minutes to go.

The Hoyas closed the gap to 9 with under 3 minutes to go, as Jabril Trawick and Otto Porter hit back-to-back three pointers, and to seven before the Eagles extended the lead again with an emphatic dunk.

The last two minutes featured a furious comeback attempt by Georgetown, as Markel Starks and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera scored for the Hoyas to close the gap to four with 51 second left.

The Eagles made their free throws down the stretch, in stark contrast to the Hoyas, who shot free throws well below their season average and missed 20 three pointers on the night.

Otto Porter, playing in what may well be his last game for the Hoyas, scored 13 with 11 rebounds but only shot 5 of 17 in the loss.

Sherwood Brown scored 24 for the Eagles.