NCAA Tournament 2015: Georgetown beats Eastern Washington 84-74

Georgetown started the game really slow and had many people worrying because there was not a lot of defensive intensity on any of Eastern Washington's shooters. Tyler Harvey, who is the best scorer in the country, was shooting the ball a lot in the first half and made some of them. Harvey really has the Steph Curry mindset because he takes contested shots, uncontested shots, and seems like whenever he is behind the arc, he will shoot the ball. In the second half, Georgetown was able to right the ship and figure the Eagles out. Here are three things we learned

Eastern Washington can't rebound at all

Georgetown won this game because of the amount of times they were crashing the boards. At first, the Hoyas were not getting the rebounds that they needed, but the intensity picked up later in the first half. Eastern Washington allowed Georgetown to grab 17 rebounds, which is really good for a team that has had problems on the boards at times. The Eagles grabbed 14 boards, and some came on plays when the Hoyas did not make an attempt to even grab the ball.It was shocking to see the Eagles have 14 rebounds in the first half because they are not really good on the boards. The rebounding spread was not as big as many expected, but it was really a difference maker at key points in the first half and it helped the Hoyas from that point forward because everyone on that team looked gassed from about the 10 minute mark of the second half.

Jabril Trawick helped Georgetown with one play

Georgetown's Jabril Trawick did one thing the in the first half that really set the game up for the Hoyas. When Tyler Harvey was called for a travel, he hit Harvey in the chest by accident and it was not called a flagrant. The momentum really went the Hoyas way because Eastern Washington kept shooting the ball from behind the arc and they were making shots, but once they play happened, the intensity went up a lot on both sides of the ball. It was like a sense of change went into the heads of everyone that was on the floor and bench because they closed the first half on a huge run that really took the Eagles out of the game and it was a blowout.

Georgetown really played like they wanted everyone to shut up about what has transpired in past couple of years about loosing to a double-digit seed. From that point on, Georgetown took the emotion out of the Eagles because the first few minutes of the second half, it was all offense for the Hoyas. It was a contribution from everyone on the team that played quality minutes. Eastern Washington's Venky Jois was mad because, in the second half, he fouled Mikael Hopkins and it was called for a flagrant 1. The Philadelphia native really boosted his team, not by a lot of talking, but just the way he played on the court.

Georgetown's bench was huge

Georgetown's bench was huge in the game. They got a lot of help from Tre Campbell because when he came in the game, the defensive pressure really stepped up when he got in the game and he did some good things on offense, which is what the team needed in the first half because the starting lineup was not doing that much. The one thing that stood out is that Georgetown took over the game when Joshua Smith was not in the game because of foul trouble, because it seems like almost every game this season there has been a commentator saying Smith has two fouls. Georgetown's bench scored 32 points at one point, while the Eagles only had eight at the same point, but those numbers increased for the Hoyas in the second half and for the Eagles. The Eagles did not give the nation's leading scorer the help that he needed until late to get him out of the hole that they were in. Since the Hoyas have so much depth, that is what allowed them to get this win. They also had a lot of help from D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera. Paul White hit a dagger, which was really good because it gave them breathing room for a few seconds. Georgetown will need to continue to this play in the Round of 32 against Utah.