FGCU stuns Georgetown in second round

PHILADELPHIA -- John Thompson III doesn't have an answer.

Georgetown's latest early exit from the NCAA tournament came at the hands of another team with a double-digit seed in front of its name.

No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast beat the second-seeded Hoyas 78-68 on Friday night in the second round of the South Regional.

Maybe even more shocking than the seventh win ever for a 15 seed over a No. 2 was the fact it was the fourth straight tournament the Hoyas left having lost to a team seeded 10th or higher.

Since reaching the Final Four in 2007, Georgetown has been dispatched by No. 10 Davidson in 2008, No. 11 Ohio in 2010, No. 11 VCU in 2011 and No. 11 North Carolina State last year.

Thompson was asked if he could explain the postseason trouble for one of the Big East's best regular-season teams.

"I wish I could, trust me, more than anyone on this Earth," he said. "I've tried to analyze it, think about it, look at it, think about what we should do differently and I don't know."

With 24 points from Sherwood Brown and a healthy dose of swagger, FCGU pulled off the upset.

"This is our first time being in the NCAA tournament. To actually go out there and win that first game, it means something really special to us," said Brown, who was the first of the players to head toward the Florida Gulf Coast cheering section with several seconds still on the clock.

The Eagles used a 21-2 second-half run to pull away.

"It's an unbelievable feeling. We played a very tough team in Georgetown. They have great players. They're a historic school," forward Chase Fieler said.

Bernard Thompson had 23 points for Florida Gulf Coast (25-10), the champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

"We decided we can play with anybody and we did," said FGCU point guard Brett Comer, who finished with 12 points,10 assists and just two turnovers.

The Eagles' monster run gave them a 52-33 lead with 12:28 to play. The Hoyas staged a furious rally to get within 72-68 with 52 seconds left but the Eagles went 6 of 10 from the free throw line to seal it.

This is FGCU's first tournament and Georgetown's 29th, including the 1984 national championship. But the Eagles did beat Miami earlier this season.

Markel Starks had 23 points for the Hoyas (25-7), a tri-champion of the Big East regular season and one of the top defensive teams in the nation.

That didn't seem to bother the Eagles much.

While Georgetown came in allowing 55.7 points per game, FGCU beat that number with 9:22 to play when it led 57-40. The Hoyas allowed opponents to shoot 37.6 percent from the field, fourth-best in the country. The Eagles shot 42.9 percent (21 of 49) and they held the Hoyas to 37.5 percent from the field (24 of 64).

"It just wasn't our day," Starks said. "What you saw out there wasn't typical Georgetown basketball. The thing that we pride ourselves in, we just couldn't get stops. We just couldn't get stops, but, hey congratulate them on their victory."

Big East Player of the Year Otto Porter Jr. had 13 points on 5-of-17 shooting and 11 rebounds. On this night he couldn't match Brown, the A-Sun's player of the year.

Porter, a sophomore who said he hasn't made a decision yet on whether to return to Georgetown next season, said "winning is hard."

"They got out in transition, and that started their run," he said. "They started knocking down the shot. It's hard when a team is knocking down shots like that."

The FGCU fans who made the trip to Philadelphia were loud all game. The rest of the crowd at Wells Fargo Center joined them during the big run and there's nothing to bring fans together like rooting against a heavy favorite.