Georgetown Prep Boys' Basketball

Little Hoyas Dig Deep
By B.J. Koubaroulis
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, February 17, 2008; D06

As his teammates' shouts of joy echoed through the locker room wall behind him and an assistant coach stood nearby staring at the Interstate Athletic Conference trophy, Georgetown Prep senior guard-forward Alvin Tucker rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, trying to grasp the irony of last night's 58-53 victory over Bullis.

The Little Hoyas, plagued by miserable three-point shooting in two regular season losses to the Bulldogs, used the long ball to rally back from a 10-point deficit in the IAC tournament final at St. Albans.

"I chose to look at it as this is how it's supposed to be," said a smiling Tucker, who was one of three Hoyas to make three-point shots during a fourth-quarter rally that gave Georgetown Prep the tournament trophy, but not the league title.

Because the IAC tournament is based on a point system, Bullis already had wrapped up the league title before last night's game.

Tucker finished with a game-high 11 points.

Georgetown Prep (18-7) -- the tournament's No. 3 seed -- had shot 4 of 33 from the three-point line in its first regular season loss to Bullis (19-7) and made eight shots from behind the arc in its second regular season loss to the Bulldogs.

"There is irony in that," Georgetown Prep Coach Dwayne Bryant said.

The Hoyas shot 8 of 28 from behind the arc last night, but connected on 5 of 8 three-pointers in the fourth quarter to rally from the double-digit deficit.

"You do kind of live or die by the three," said junior guard Paul Llewelyn, who made two of his three three-pointers in the fourth quarter to spark a decisive 23-8 run. "We kind of died by it early in the season, but it came through in the end."

Georgetown Prep shot 3 of 20 from the three-point line through three quarters and trailed 45-35 entering the fourth.

"I just told them to relax and have fun," Bryant said.

Trailing 48-42 with 4 minutes 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Llewelyn connected on a high-arcing three-pointer and then followed Tucker's game-tying three-pointer with another deep three-pointer that put the Hoyas up 51-48.

"Even after we shot 4 of 33 against them the first time, we didn't change anything," said sophomore guard Markel Starks, who scored six of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, all on three-pointers. "We stayed with it and it worked."

Georgetown Prep 58 Bullis 53

Not Quite Done: Bullis is scheduled to play Riverdale Baptist on Tuesday.

Petkovich's Punch: Nick Petkovich, Bullis's Lafayette-bound senior forward, led all scorers with 15 points.