Hoyas happy to lean on Green in the end

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - With the game and the season on the line, there was no doubt where Georgetown was going with the ball on its final possession. It was going to Jeff Green on the right elbow at Continental Airlines Arena with an NCAA East Region final berth coming down to his decision.

With a Vanderbilt player on each arm, Green took a dribble toward the basket, fumbled the ball momentarily, stepped between the defenders, jumped in the air, coolly held the ball in his right hand and smoothly launched it toward the backboard with 3.5 seconds left. It was a 6-foot shot Tim Duncan and John Wooden must have loved, gently glancing off the board before nestling into the net with 2.5 seconds left.

Vanderbilt had gone from up one to down one and, with two timeouts in its pocket, promptly panicked and rushed the ball up court. A desperation shot by Alex Gordon had no chance.

And Georgetown, a 66-65 winner, was in its first Final Eight since Allen Iverson took the Hoyas there in 1996 when they lost to Massachusetts, a step from the Final Four.

Green, the Big East Player of the Year and college basketball's most understated star, is a great passer. He wasn't passing up that final shot. He remembered his team just missed beating eventual national champion Florida at this exact moment of the 2006 tournament. He was going to decide it, one way or another.

"I like to have the ball in my hands because I have all the confidence in myself that I can make plays," Green said.

The final play had several options. Patrick Ewing Jr. was going backdoor. There was another screen being set on the other side of the court.

"Coming out of the huddle I said, 'Jeff, if you don't have Pat, turn and go, turn and go,' " Georgetown coach John Thompson III said.

Green listened very closely. And did exactly as he was told.

Green finished 7-for-11 from the field for 15 points. When some of his teammates appeared to be trying to shoot the Hoyas out of it in the first half, Green did just enough to keep them in it. Then, with everything on the line, he won it.

"You can't force anything, even though the clock is winding down," Green said. "Just got to stick with your stuff."

Vanderbilt (22-12) did just about everything right - except win the game. The Commodores were raining in treys at the start. With 6 minutes left in the first half, they led, 27-14.

Georgetown (29-6) holds teams to 56.9 points per game, so you knew Vandy could not keep it up. The threes started to come up short and the Hoyas quickly worked their way back into the game. Still, Vandy led at the break, 32-24. The Hoyas' Jessie Sapp took five shots (and missed them all) in the first half while big man Roy Hibbert took one. The Hoyas shot 33.3 percent while Vandy shot 46.2 percent.

When the second half started, Hibbert (12 points, 10 rebounds) was getting the ball on the low block every possession and the Hoyas caught up very quickly. In the final 20 minutes, the Hoyas shot 53.1 percent while Vandy shot 36 percent. G-town crushed Vandy on the glass, 40-26.

Even with that disparity, Vanderbilt hung in. When Hibbert fouled out with 3:58 left after running into a three-point shooter, you might have thought Vandy would get there. When Dan Cage hit two free throws to give Vandy a 65-64 lead, it really looked as if they would get there - until Georgetown called its final timeout. And Thompson said get the ball to Green.

"He bobbled it, but once he got it together, he had a decision to make and he made the right decision," Thompson said.

Very few players have an innate understanding of all the subtleties of the beautiful game. Jeff Green, who played at Northwestern High in Hyattsville, Md., the same school that produced the late Len Bias, is one of those very few players.

Vanderbilt got 17 points each from Derrick Byars and Dan Cage. They got 16 more from Shan Foster. They had just five turnovers in the game. Vanderbilt, a six seed, had blasted George Washington and upset Washington State in two overtimes. They were seconds from a chance at the Final Four. And then they weren't.

"It's always disappointing when you lose one like that because you can go over so many things in your head, things that might have gone differently," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "But the bottom line was they made one more play than we did and we needed one stop and rebound."

In the end, the difference was simple. Georgetown had Jeff Green. *