Georgetown, Pittsburgh to decide Big East Tournament champ

Saturday, March 15, 2008
9 PM - Madison Square Garden

#1 Georgetown vs. #7 Pittsburgh

We started out with 12. Now we’re down to the final two. Georgetown and Pitt have outlasted the other 10 teams in this year’s Big East tournament, and the Hoyas and Panthers will decide the 2008 Big East tournament champ tonight at 9 p.m. from Madison Square Garden.

For the second consecutive year, Georgetown and Pitt will square off in the Big East tournament championship. Last season, Georgetown dominated Pitt 64-52 thanks to Roy Hibbert’s 18 points and 11 rebounds. Now Hibbert will attempt to lead Georgetown to the promise land for the second year in a row. Georgetown hasn’t won back-to-back Big East tournament titles since 1984 and 1985.

Fresh off his zero point, five foul effort in the Big East quarterfinals against Villanova, Hibbert dropped the hammer on West Virginia in the semis, getting 25 points on 12-of-17 shooting and grabbing 13 boards; both were season bests. Behind a dominating effort from their first-team All-Big East center, Georgetown dropped West Virginia from the tournament, 72-55, in the semifinals on Friday night. The previous day, with Hibbert being a nonfactor, Georgetown showed they can more than make up for it when Hibbert has a bad night. The Hoyas drained 17 3-pointers, setting a school record and tying a Big East tournament record, en route to an 82-63 thrashing of Villanova in the quarterfinals. With the win over WVU, Georgetown improved to 14-0 all time in the Big East tournament as the No.1 seed, and the Hoyas will go for their eighth Big East tournament championship on Saturday.

Standing in their way will be Pittsburgh, who will be playing for the fourth time in as many days. Behind Sam Young, the Panthers were able to win for the third straight day, holding off sixth-seeded Marquette 68-61 in Friday’s semifinal matchup. Young’s 22 points helped put Pittsburgh back into the Big East tournament championship game for the second year in a row, and seventh time in the past eight. Young is averaging 21.3 ppg in the tournament, scoring 21 in both wins against Cincinnati and Louisville, and 22 on Friday night.

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As good as Young has been for Pitt, it’s the Panthers’ defense that’s propelled them back into the title game. In all three games in the tournament, Pitt has held their opponents to under 65 points (64.7 ppg) and only allowing the opposition to shoot 36 percent from the field. The Panthers held Marquette in check, holding the Golden Eagles to just 31 percent shooting.

Pitt took the only meeting between the two schools this season, defeating the Hoyas 69-60 on Jan.14 th in Pittsburgh. Hibbert had 12 points and 10 boards in the loss for Georgetown, while Sam Young was held in single digits for the only time this season, finishing with only nine points on a rough 3-of-13 shooting. Ronald Ramon led Pitt in the win, scoring a season-high 18 points.

by Frank Minniti
BigEast-fans.com Director of Content

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