DURHAM, N.C. — Sent on the road in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019, Georgetown got the rare opportunity to be an opening weekend hunter Saturday night.
It was a role the Hoyas took to splendidly, never trailing in a 16-12 defeat of seventh-seeded Duke before 1,621 at Koskinen Stadium.
“This program has looked at itself as an underdog, and in my opinion we have to stop,” attackman Aidan Carroll said. “We have to be the aggressor. We realized that halfway through the season. That’s the mentality we approach it with. Obviously, the seeding doesn’t demonstrate that, but that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Carroll did his part to achieve it, scoring six goals for Georgetown (12-4) while adding two assists as the Hoyas won an NCAA tournament road game for the first time since 2003 (a year only the top four teams were seeded) and beat a seeded team for the first time since knocking off eighth-seeded Cornell in the first round of the 2000 tournament.
Fulton Bayman had four goals and an assist and Ross Prince won 20 of 30 faceoffs for the Hoyas, who advanced to face either second-seeded Maryland or Air Force next Sunday in Annapolis, Md.
Georgetown advanced to the quarterfinals for the fourth time in five years. But the Hoyas were seeded in 2021 (fifth), 2023 (seventh) and 2024 (eighth), and lost at home as a No. 2 seed to open the 2022 tournament.
“I kind of felt like we maybe had nothing to lose,” coach Kevin Warne said. “Maybe some people, the prognosticators [may have overlooked us], but you can’t worry about that. You have to play the game. I said: ‘This is what I do know. We’re going to have 60 minutes and we’ll figure it out after that.’”
Eric Malever had two goals and two assists for the Blue Devils (12-6), who fell in the first round for the first time since 2016.
“I did a very poor job coaching,” Duke’s John Danowski said. “I did not prepare the team well. I’m disappointed in myself.”
Georgetown was assertive from the start, going up 3-0 and maintaining a lead almost the entire first half. But the Blue Devils surged back to tie it first at 6, then at 7 when faceoff man Cal Girard scored from the restraining line as time expired in the second quarter.
Given how Duke had played much of the half, it had reason to be pleased at the deadlock.
But the same could be said for the Hoyas, who were hoarding possession as much as possible and had prevented the Blue Devils from playing as they did in impressive late-season defeats of Syracuse and North Carolina.
“I came in at halftime and said, ‘Listen it’s 7-7 — if I told you two hours ago it was 7-7, let’s take it,’” Warne said. “We did that and kind of ran with it.”
The third quarter helped tip things to Georgetown thanks in part to Prince, a freshman whose role expanded greatly when James Ball was lost for the full season to injury. Prince himself missed time in March, returning for the bulk of Big East play and the Hoyas’ seventh consecutive Big East tournament title.
Against Duke, he was prepared for a rare game on a grass field after assistant coach Ted Moon took Georgetown’s faceoff guys to work on the school’s soccer pitch during the week. And he had answers for three Blue Devil specialists, keeping each to less than 50 percent with a willingness to deploy counters at every opportunity.
“That’s something we practice, resorting to that second move,” Prince said. “Getting into that second move is just habit at this point.”
Carroll was a May maestro once again. A game after scoring eight times in the Hoyas’ defeat of Villanova in the Big East final, he scored all four of Georgetown’s second-quarter goals and the first two of the second half as Duke could summon no answer for him.
Carroll’s 48 goals are the seventh most in program history in a single season, and his 74 points rank fifth.
“He’s one of the most underrated players in the country,” Warne said. “Hopefully, people know about him. He deserves any recognition that he gets. He’s so humble and such a good kid. He does all the right things and for our guys to learn from him is unbelievable.”
The Blue Devils did little with the time they did have the ball, managing just three shots in the fourth quarter as Georgetown expanded the lead to 12-8. A clearly frustrated Danowski clicked off mistakes that helped permit the Hoyas to pull away.
There were a couple failed clears in the third quarter and three for the game. Some passes were tossed away in transition. Another time, Duke didn’t back up a transition shot.
“There were so many of those opportunities, but we hadn’t been a good half-field team all year,” Danowski said. “So when that happened, I wasn’t really surprised.”
Duke will miss Memorial Day weekend in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2015-17. The Blue Devils lost in the quarterfinals a year ago to Maryland and graduated a massive class of seniors and grad students.
The revamped lineup authored some strong moments, but there was also inconsistency right to the end.
“Love these kids,” Danowski said. “They’re hurting right now. Obviously, we’re missing something. To lose at home in the first round — hat’s off to your opponent. Those Georgetown kids played hard. Obviously, they had the two best offensively on the field and scored 10 goals between the two of them. Their faceoff guy was dominant. I thought if we had the ball a little bit more, we would have scored more goals.”
