box score
audio - coach john thompson, jeff green, roy hibbert & jonathan wallace
audio - coach john thompson (second interview)
Throughout Georgetown's incredible run to the 2007 Final Four, there has been an oft-incomprehensible member of the HoyaTalk message board posting the same story again and again.
It is a parable told in all caps and awash in emoticons, but the tale goes something like this:
As a young man, legendary coach Al McGuire was at the beach with his grandmother.
Al was about to go out with his friends.
Al's grandmother offered him a banana to eat but McGuire said he was not hungry.
When McGuire returned famished later that day, the banana was gone.
The moral was - as his grandmother informed him - "Al, when you have the banana, eat the banana."
This fable had become the rallying cry for Hoya faithful during every comeback and each heart-pausing victory that beget another fantastic finish.
In the first semifinal of this evening's NCAA Final Four, it was Ohio State that ate the banana.
It had been another rally for the Hoyas, who had trailed by eight points in the first half. Georgetown drew even at 44 with 9:45 left on Jonathan Wallace's step-back three point shot.
Hoya center Roy Hibbert picked up his fourth personal foul, called for holding on a loose ball scramble as both teams tried to track down Ron Lewis' missed three pointer. Hibbert headed to the sidelines.
Saddled with three personal fouls of his own, Ohio State freshman center Greg Oden came back off the bench and started a 7-0 Buckeye run with a right-handed hook over the Hoyas' Jeff Green. Two transition layups for Ohio State, each following a missed Georgetown three point shot, gave the Buckeyes six points in a single minute. By the time Hibbert returned to the lineup three possessions separated the two teams.
When Jessie Saap drove to the basket for a layup with 3:21 left Georgetown was back to within four, 56-52. The Hoyas would get the ball as Oden missed from just outside his comfort range. Oden was whistled for his fourth foul as Green drove on him and was hacked.
Georgetown did a great job this season calling set plays out of time outs, but did not have similar success after the game's final media stoppage.
Inbounding in the frontcourt, Hibbert flashed to the rim, however ball did not come his way. Green made a move to the basket from the wing as the defense swarmed to the Hoyas' 7'2" big man, but one Buckeye defender got in Green's way to draw an offensive foul.
Down at the other side of the Georgia Dome, a short Oden jumper went back iron and in, and Ohio State could start to peel their spot in Monday's championship game.
Hibbert finished with 19 points and 6 rebounds. Oden had 13 points and 9 boards. Both manchildren were hampered by foul problems. Hibbert was whistled on the game's first possession. Oden picked up two fouls in the first three minutes. It took Hibbert 13 minutes to get called for his second foul, flagged on a bump after having just recorded consecutive slams.
