Georgetown Gets Extra Step It Needs : Controversial Call Helps Hoyas Hold Off N.C. State

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Of the eight schools remaining in the running for college basketball’s national championship, only one has ever won it--Georgetown. And if Princeton could have put the ball in the basket one more time last week, even Georgetown might be a goner by now.

John Thompson’s Hoyas fought for their tournament lives Friday night and lived to fight another day by downing North Carolina State, 69-61, in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s East Regional, before an audience of 19,508 at Brendan Byrne Arena.

They did it courtesy of eight three-point baskets by Dwayne Bryant and Jaren Jackson and with a 12-point, 12-rebound, five-block effort by supercenter Alonzo Mourning, the biggest teen idol on the District of Columbia school’s campus since Patrick Ewing.

They also did it courtesy of a traveling violation called against an opponent in the final two minutes, a call they will be replaying on the nightly news in Raleigh, N.C., for several evenings to come.

Georgetown now runs into Duke--the first time these seaboard neighbors have met in 56 years--in Sunday’s Regional championship game, for the right to party with the Final Four in Seattle. Last time the NCAA finals were held in that town, five years ago, Ewing was doing the shot-swatting and Georgetown won its only championship.

The Hoyas, top-seeded and 29-4, are living dangerously these days. Besides their scare against Princeton, they lucked out against North Carolina State on that traveling whistle that went against the Wolfpack and ruined their dogged comeback.

The call was made on N.C. State guard Chris Corchiani with 1:47 left. He had just scored on a twisting move in the lane and appeared to have been fouled. A three-point play would have tied the score.

Instead, official Rick Hartzell said Corchiani had taken too many steps. He disallowed the hoop and gave possession of the ball to Georgetown.

Corchiani’s coach, Jim Valvano, went crazy, shouting at Hartzell: “Are you crazy?”

Billy Packer, analyst on CBS’ telecast, viewed the instant replay and said: “No steps at all! Not even close!”

Indeed, to the untrained eye, the replay showed nothing by Corchiani that even remotely resembled traveling.

John Thompson’s opinion?

He said it should have been a foul.

Not against one of his players.

Against Corchiani.

“I thought it was a foul,” Thompson said. “I thought he jumped right in (and bumped the defender).”

Anyhow, the relieved Hoyas raced right down and enjoyed another three-pointer by Bryant--his fifth home run of the game. Up by six points, instead of tied, they were home free.

Valvano had simmered down by game’s end and decided to be gracious about it.

“A game’s made up of many calls,” he said. “I prefer to congratulate the winners.”

Here’s how the Hoyas won:

Ahead by 14 points at halftime and still cruising along by nine with 7 1/2 minutes to play, Georgetown suddenly began to lose it. Rodney Monroe got hot again, same way he did last week against Iowa, and N.C. State made its move, running off six straight points to make it 59-56 with under three minutes remaining.

With the sick and slumping Big East player of the year, Charles Smith, going scoreless most of the way and ending the game with nothing to show but one free throw, the Hoyas found themselves hanging on by their fingernails--all except their coach, Thompson, whose fractured middle finger on his left hand was confined to a splint.

“We wanted to stop Mourning and Smith, and we did,” Valvano said. “Unfortunately, their other guys got hot, and we fell too far behind. We spent the whole game trying to catch up and playing not to lose.”

Thompson insinuated that N.C. State’s strategy backfired, because Corchiani wasted energy defending against Smith that he could have been using to double-team Mourning. The 19-year-old freshman dominated play around the baskets, blocking four N.C. State shots in the first half alone.

The flu-ravaged Smith was so weak, he wanted to be taken out. He had worked 32 minutes under less than top-of-his-game conditions. But Thompson left him in.

“They (N.C. State) were over-playing a guy who wasn’t contributing anything,” Thompson said.

He let them keep doing it. Thompson also shuttled in 11 different players during the game, 10 in the first half, making use of every available body from his son, Ronnie, to his spectacularly named sophomore from Zaire, the 6-foot 11-inch Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Diken’s Jean-Jacque Wa Mutombo.

The Wolfpack kept closing in, then fading away. They tightened things to 30-28, only to allow Georgetown the last dozen points of the half. They fought back with a 12-0 run in the second half, led by Monroe, who nailed 20 of his game-high 26 points after halftime. But they simply couldn’t tie the score.

One of the things that motivated both clubs was the constant bickering and talking that transpired on the floor. At one point in the second half, N.C. State’s Avie Lester even took a swing at Mourning, who pointed a long finger in his face and dared him to do it again.

“At times,” said Georgetown’s Jackson, “it was quite chaotic.”

Valvano said: “There was a great deal of dialogue, but not much being said. Everybody was just looking for an edge.”

Georgetown’s edge was the inability of N.C. State’s offense to get into gear. Only four Wolfpack players scored in the first half, and Monroe and Chuckie Brown managed only two field goals between them. For the game, Brown finished with two-of-11 shooting and settled for five points. The Wolfpack shot less than 40% for the game.

The Wolfpack ended the season 22-9.