CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Playing in North Carolina had never been good to the Washington Huskies until last night. Behind 19 points from Isaiah Thomas, the seventh-seeded Huskies defeated 10th-seeded Georgia, 68-65, in an NCAA tournament East Region game at the Time Warner Cable Arena.
The Bulldogs (21-12) had hoped to control the tempo of the game to keep the faster Huskies (24-10) from flying up and down the court. They managed to do that, forcing a 28-28 tie at halftime. But the Bulldogs didn’t make enough plays in the second half to get the victory. A desperation 3-point attempt by Travis Leslie missed as the buzzer sounded.
“Even though we got the game like we wanted you’ve got to make the play at both ends of the court and we didn’t do that,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said.
Washington, the Pac-10 tournament champions, outscored Georgia 17-5 to start the second half and nursed the lead for the rest of the game though the Bulldogs behind 26 points from Trey Thompkins made a late rally to cut the deficit to three with 20 seconds left.
But the Huskies hit just enough free throws down the stretch to get the win and end a 0-for-8 streak in games played in North Carolina. They will now advance to the second-seeded Tar Heels tomorrow.
“Georgia was able to make a couple of runs, but we settle down and got some stops,” said Thomas, who was 6-of-14 from the field. “Guys made big plays in the second half and we got the win.”