PORTLAND – On a day that longshots were on the mark, this one had bullseye written all over it.
But Eastern Washington’s shooting misfired. A Moda Center crowd that was primed to explode fizzled like a Fourth of July dud.
As Eastern Washington turned Portland into Cheney West, the stage was set for the Eagles to pull an upset that wouldn’t have felt like one.
After all, what better way to cap Thursday’s topsy-turvy trip through the NCAA tournament than having the plucky Eagles beat big bad Georgetown.
Sure, the logic said the No. 13-seeded Eagles wouldn’t beat the No. 4-seeded Hoyas.
But logic wasn’t exactly having a stellar day. Two No. 14 seeds had already won. So had an 11 and a 10.
For the first time in tournament history, five games had been decided by one point. That included a game decided on a goal-tended 3-point shot.
Things were supposed to be backward. Eagles star Tyler Harvey, the leading scorer in NCAA Division I, was even introduced as Harvey Tyler during pregame introductions.
Yes, the leading scorer in all of college basketball is found in Eastern Washington, and he doesn’t even play for Gonzaga.
Georgetown has the East Coast spotlight and the Big East pedigree that comes with it. The only thing Big and East about EWU is the capital E in its name.
It was a day for underdogs, so when Eastern Washington jumped to a seven-point lead midway through the first half, it seemed like a perfect nightcap to the nuttiness.
Then logic crashed the party.
Georgetown ended the first half on an 18-4 run. The Hoyas’ superior size saw them dominate the paint. Their deeper bench, which scored 45 of Georgetown’s 84 points, ran circles around the Eagles’ starters.
Their superior speed and length let them hound Harvey as the Hoyas stretched the lead to 63-42 midway through the second half. Only a late rally made the final score (84-74) and Harvey’s scoreline (27 points) respectable.
Thursday’s four games at the Moda Center had plenty for basketball fans. They saw two likely NBA lottery picks in Arizona’s Stanley Johnson and Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell.
Fans in the 200 level craned their necks to watch the televisions in the suites as Georgia State snared its dramatic win. The entire audience then saw Ohio State and VCU provide overtime fireworks.
But when the night seemed to promise a flurry of excitement for a flock of Eagles and their fans, March Madness once more went against the grain.
