RICHMOND - Second-seeded Georgetown began its march toward the Final Four with a merciless pounding of No. 15 Mississippi Valley State, methodically drubbing the Delta Devils 93-56 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Hoyas will meet No. 7-seed New Mexico at 12:15 p.m. tomorrow in the second round. The Lobos were 69-48 winners over Kansas State in the other early East Region first-round game.
Inspired by first-round upset victories by low seeds Princeton and Drexel, the Delta Devils - sporting new Nike basketball shoes and warmups courtesy of alumnus and San Francisco 49ers star Jerry Rice - took the court hopeful of creating some unexpected drama of their own.
But the game marked a homecoming of sorts for Allen Iverson, and no upstart team from Itta Bena, Miss., was going to spoil his fun. The sophomore guard from Hampton, approximately 30 miles from Richmond, made 13 of 18 shots and scored 31 points in only 25 minutes as Georgetown (27-7) built a 23-point halftime lead and smothered the Delta Devils in the second half.
The 6-foot Iverson, a first-team Associated Press All-American, treated the crowd of 11,859 at Richmond Coliseum to a 'SportsCenter'-worthy collection of perimeter jumpers, slashing layups and baseline jams and exited to a standing ovation. Among the spectators was former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, whose grant of conditional clemency after Iverson's 1991 conviction for maiming by mob allowed him to attend Georgetown.
'It was nice having everyone there,' Iverson said, 'but I can't let all the attention become a distraction. We're here for a reason, and I have to stay focused.'
Georgetown coach John Thompson spoke kindly of the overwhelmed opposition, saying, 'This is a whole different environment for Mississippi Valley State. We play on national television an awful lot; we're in the [NCAA tournament] a lot. It's very difficult for some of those kids to get in this setting and relax right away. I'm sure they are far better than they played against us today.'
After nine minutes of relatively good basketball, the Delta Devils disintegrated. Georgetown (27-7) went on a 19-3 run that gave them a 40-15 lead with 4:26 remaining. As the Delta Devils (22-7) wilted under Georgetown's fullcourt trapping zone defense, committing 13 turnovers in the first half, Iverson and reserve center Jahidi White (13 points, eight rebounds) took turns converting those turnovers into transition baskets.
'During the time we got that spurt, our defensive intensity picked up,' senior center Othella Harrington said. 'We ran a little trap at them and they couldn't handle it. Jahidi was doing a great job on the inside, too. The guards were getting him the ball, and he was too big for them to guard, so I think his play contributed a lot to the run.'
And when the Mississippians weren't kicking balls out of bounds or throwing panicky passes to phantom teammates, they were forcing outrageous shots en route to a 24 percent first-half performance from the field.
'Today you witnessed a good country whipping,' Mississippi Valley State coach Lafayette Stribling said. 'We got careless with the basketball, and we couldn't throw it in the well. But the best team won today. This Georgetown team is really something. . . . The Iverson kid is everything we expected and maybe some more. . . . We were just overmatched.'
The second half mirrored the first as Georgetown's Harrington (15 points, eight rebounds), and Ya-Ya Dia (10 points, six rebounds) joined White in the middle to give the Hoyas a 50-34 rebounding edge despite the efforts of Delta Devils center Marcus Mann (24 points, seven rebounds). Mann entered the game as the nation's leading rebounder but was swarmed under by the Hoyas' frontcourt horde.
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HOYAS REPORT
Analysis and commentary from yesterday's game:
ALL IN THE FAMILY - Coach John Thompson used No. 13-seed Princeton's Thursday night upset of No. 4-seed UCLA as an inspirational warning to his Hoyas before yesterday's first-round matchup with No. 15-seed Mississippi Valley State. But the Tigers upset win was more than just a motivational tool for Thompson.
'The Princeton vs. UCLA game had special meaning to me because my son [John III] is one of the assistant coaches at Princeton,' Thompson said. 'Shortly after the game he called me from a pay phone, and when the phone rang I knew exactly who it was. And Pete [Carril] has special meaning to me because my child loves him, so I love him, too. So, I was glad about that and certainly I used it.'
VICTIMS - While the rest of the Hoyas had a field day against the overmatched Delta Devils, posting a 66 percent shooting effort, freshman guard Victor Page had one of his least auspicious games of the season. After starting out 4-for-4, Page missed 10 of his next 11 shots and committed five turnovers, finishing with an ugly 14 points.
JERRY'S KIDS - Upon learning that his alma mater was the only one of the 64 teams in the NCAA tournament without a shoe contract on Wednesday night, alumnus Jerry Rice donated several thousand dollars worth of Nike shoes and warmups to the Mississippi Valley State program on Thursday morning. Maybe the 49ers' All-Pro, who holds the majority of the NFL's pass receiving records, should have donated a couple of new suits to the Delta Devils coaches. State's Lafayette Stribling showed up in a bright, seafoam green suit that eliminated the need for lights elsewhere in the arena.
