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Washington • Otto Porter had 17 points and grabbed the game's decisive rebound with 1.4 seconds to play Saturday, leading Georgetown to a 53-51 win over No. 5 Louisville, the Cardinals' third straight loss.
Trailing by one, Louisville had several chances to take the lead in the final two minutes. After getting the ball back on a disputed held ball ruling, the Cardinals kept the ball for a final shot. Peyton Siva, who didn't score in the game, missed the jumper, Porter grabbed the rebound and was fouled.
Porter finished with 12 rebounds for the up-and-down Hoyas (14-4, 4-3 Big East), who prevailed in another fast-paced entertaining game to go with the poor-shooting clunkers they have had this season. Georgetown has beaten ranked teams Notre Dame and Louisville in consecutive games, quite a contrast from laborious losses to South Florida, Marquette and Pittsburgh.
Russ Smith, who was taken out of the starting lineup, finished with 12 points, while Luke Hancock and Gorgui Dieng also had 12 for the Cardinals (16-4, 4-3), who have their longest losing streak since January 2010. Louisville, No. 1 in the country a week ago, then fell to Syracuse and Villanova — and the shake-up from coach Rick Pitino couldn't stop the losing streak.
Pitino went with Hancock in the starting five over Smith, who went 2 for 13 against Villanova, his second 2-for-13 performance this month. Smith was on the bench for the start of both halves, but he didn't sit long either time and played 29 minutes. Meanwhile, Siva played only 23 minutes because of foul trouble.
Aaron Bowen's acrobatic tip-in — his only points of the game — gave Georgetown a 52-50 lead with 3 1/2 minutes left. Louisville's Chane Behanan made 1 of 2 free throws to cut the lead to one with 2 minutes, 22 seconds to play — leading to more doubts about the Cardinals' ability to hit from the line in the clutch.
Louisville went 12 for 12 from the free-throw line in the first half but just 4 for 10 in the second. The Cardinals went 12 for 24 against Villanova, including several key misses late in the game.
Georgetown shot well early and led by as many as nine points in the first half, taking a 24-15 lead on Porter's 3-pointer about midway through the period. But the Cardinals were able to penetrate and get whistles, scoring 10 straight points and 11 of their last 15 in the first half from the free-throw line to trail 33-29 at halftime. —