Georgetown prevails in double-OT battle with Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Georgetown couldn't top its thrilling upset win over then-top ranked Duke on Saturday. It came close, though.

The Hoyas (Unranked ESPN/USA Today; No. 21 AP) squandered a 15-point first-half lead. They survived a bonehead foul that allowed Notre Dame to force overtime with a four-point play. They then endured a near game-winning basket by Chris Quinn at the end of the first overtime before finally beating the Irish 85-82 in double overtime on Tuesday night.

"To come away with a double-overtime win on the road in a place we had not won in quite some time -- regardless of what happened Saturday -- was extremely important," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "It was a very, very good win for our team."

The game marked the third time in the past seven games Georgetown (13-4, 4-2 Big East) and Notre Dame (10-7, 1-5) have gone to overtime. The Irish won in quadruple overtime in Washington in 2002 and at home in double overtime in 2003. The victory was just the second in the seven games for the Hoyas.

"I thought of the law of averages," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "The overtime games against them have been thrillers."

Notre Dame couldn't pull out the thrilling ending Tuesday night, though. A 3-pointer by Darrel Owens with 2:18 left gave the Hoyas an 83-79 lead. Roy Hibbert scored inside with 1:08 left to make it 85-81. The Irish were 2-of-5 from the free throw line in the second overtime, though, and they missed two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds that would have tied it.

"I don't want to use a boxing analogy, but it was a heavyweight fight," Thompson said. "We made a run, they come back at us and it goes back and forth, back and forth."

Owens and Hibbert each had 18 points for the Hoyas, who seemed to have the game won in regulation. But Brandon Bowman fouled Colin Falls as he hit a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left and he completed the four-point play to tie the game at 69.

Bowman admitted he felt bad about the foul.

"But we did what we had to do in overtime to get the win," he said.

At the end of the first overtime with the score 76-76, Notre Dame's Rob Kurz stuffed a shot in the lane by Jonathan Wallace with 1.8 seconds left. Kurz threw a length-of-the-court inbounds pass that bounced to Quinn, whose shot went off the side of the rim.

"You've got to try to steal it there, probably," Brey said.

Quinn had 26 points and 10 assists for the Irish, who never led in the game and are off to their worst Big East start since opening 1-5 in 1996-97.

Hibbert had 13 rebounds for Georgetown, while Ashanti Cook had 16 points, Jeff Green 12 and Wallace 10.

Falls had 18 points and Kurz added 14 for Notre Dame, which lost 100-97 in double overtime at Pittsburgh on Jan. 4.

"Maybe the karma will swing for us," Brey said. "You've got to be a little lucky sometimes."

Thompson said he was just happy the Hoyas survived.

"To hold on, not to cave in when the crowd suddenly gets back into it, and they're on cloud nine because everything's going right was impressive," he said.