TCU shocks Georgetown on Emanuel Miller buzzer beater
Ed Cooley stood dumbfounded as TCU players sprinted across the court to pile on Emanuel Miller. The Horned Frogs forward had just banked in a running three-pointer from the right wing while falling down as time expired to give the Horned Frogs an impossible 84-83 win over Cooley’s Georgetown Hoyas on Saturday night.
TCU, which was out of timeouts, had to go the length of the court in 2.7 seconds after two free throws by Jayden Epps put Georgetown up by two. The officials went to the scorer’s table to confirm Miller got his shot off in time, but replays made clear that he stepped out of bounds before the shot. However, out-of-bounds calls cannot be reviewed in that scenario, handing Cooley’s Hoyas a brutal defeat.
“We had three of the best officials in America on our game today,” Cooley said. “The game is not defined by one play. And that’s all everybody’s going to talk about. We had opportunities throughout the game. We missed a lot of free throws, missed a couple of block-outs. Everybody’s always going to think about the last play, what could’ve, should’ve. Give [the Horned Frogs] credit. They had to throw the pass. The kid caught it, and he made the shot.”
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Cooley did say he thinks the rules for that situation should be reexamined in the offseason.
But throughout Saturday’s second half, fans all around Capital One Arena were on their feet, pushing the decibels higher and higher in a sight rarely seen at a Georgetown home game in recent years. The ending was painful, but this was the type of atmosphere Cooley, the Hoyas’ first-year coach, had been seeking since he took the job.
With the score tied at 81, Epps dribbled the clock under 10 seconds before heading into the paint and getting fouled. He converted both free throws, leaving him with a team-high 24 points. Dontrez Styles added 18, and Ismael Massoud posted 16.
Cooley decided not to call a timeout after Supreme Cook grabbed a defensive rebound with 27 seconds left and the score tied, and he said afterward he wouldn’t have done that differently. He didn’t want TCU Coach Jamie Dixon to have a chance to set up his defense during a timeout. The only thing he considered was having Epps try to miss the second free throw on purpose, which would have kept TCU from having an opportunity to set up an out-of-bounds play.
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Dixon said the Horned Frogs ran a play they practice routinely for situations with less than three seconds remaining. To that, Miller laughed and said: “Every. Single. Day.”
“It’s all about just staying composed in that moment,” he added. “[Micah Peavy] threw the ball — a great pass. It was pinpoint, on the spot. I felt a lot of little push on my hip, but it’s basketball — it’s contact. Just to be able to play through that, stay focused and hit that shot — it’s a moment I’ll never forget, but it happens because of my teammates.”
Georgetown (5-3) saw its four-game winning streak end, while TCU remained perfect at 7-0.
Georgetown appeared doomed after TCU opened the second half with a 7-0 run that left Cooley visibly frustrated and the Horned Frogs up 51-36. But the Hoyas rallied to grab a 64-63 lead, their first since being up 27-25 in the first half. Massoud made four threes in the second half as Georgetown started hitting shots from all over and the Hoyas’ defense picked up.
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TCU took a 44-36 lead to halftime thanks to a 16-4 stretch after a fast start by the Hoyas. Georgetown attacked the rim early and got to the free throw line while keeping the Horned Frogs from getting out in transition. That’s exactly what TCU wants to do — it entered Saturday as the No. 1 team in the nation with 30.5 fast-break points per game.
The Hoyas’ early success didn’t last: TCU pounded the paint and began to find opportunities in transition, with its 16-4 run capped by a two-handed dunk to finish a fast break by Peavy.
With his winning basket, Miller scored a game-high 29 points for TCU, and JaKobe Coles added 17.
“That’s a different team than what they played the first five, six games,” Dixon said of Georgetown.
Here’s what else to know about the Hoyas’ loss:
First test
The Hoyas were the biggest test of the young season for TCU, which entered with six blowouts on its résumé. None of those wins had come against a power conference team.
Massoud back
Massoud played his second game in a Hoyas jersey after missing the season’s first six games with a broken hand. The Kansas State transfer came off the bench again but had a huge hand in the second-half comeback. The 6-foot-9 forward scored all 16 of his points in the second half, and he added 10 rebounds.
“I know I could bring more to the table than scoring,” he said. “So I knew if I just kept positive and try and lead my team and try to be positive in that way, I knew eventually the game would turn around.”
A little chippy
Dixon and Cooley acknowledged the game was physical, with Cooley comparing it to a Big East matchup. TCU’s Xavier Cork was assessed a flagrant-two foul with 16:47 left and the Hoyas trailing 53-41. Cooley said that was a spark for his team.
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“My kind of game, baby, my kind of game,” he said. “That’s Big East-style right there. Bodies are flying. Cursing’s going on; people upset. That’s my kind of game right there. Did [the flagrant foul] wake us up? Thousand percent. Everybody wants pretty-boy basketball. I want Big East basketball. That’s Big East basketball at its best.”
Up next
The Hoyas host longtime rival Syracuse at 11:30 a.m. next Saturday. That will be the sixth of Georgetown’s seven consecutive home games.
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