despite their early exit from the big east tournament, the hoyas had a 23-7 record overall and received an invitation to the 2001 ncaa tournament. making their first appearance in the tournament since 1997, they were seeded no. 10 in the west region and met the no. 7 seed, arkansas, in the first round. pregame press coverage billed the game as a struggle between arkansass press defense and georgetowns height inside, but the razorbacks press was not especially effective and the hoyas frontcourt of boumtje-boumtje, sweetney, and sophomore forward wesley wilson shot a combined 0-for-4 from the field in the first half amidst bad passing and bad shot selection. guards braswell and perry – with perry hitting two big three-point shots during the game – kept the hoyas close as the teams traded leads, but arkansas took a 31–30 advantage into the locker room at halftime. toward the end of the intermission, arena personnel were forced to dismantle a malfunctioning horn and light above one of the baskets, delaying the start of the second half for ten minutes; after the second half finally began, georgetowns inside game improved, but arkansas also began to score inside consistently, and the razorbacks led 47–43 with about 10 minutes left to play. they soon extended their lead to 52-45, but georgetown then went on a 12-5 run to tie the game at 57-57 with just over five minutes remaining. arkansas retook the lead and held it until braswell took the ball all the way from one end of the court to the other and scored to give the hoyas a 61-59 lead with 1:43 remaining. arkansas sophomore joe johnson scored to tie the game at 61–61 with 35.8 seconds left to play. after a time-out, georgetown sophomore forward victor samnick passed the ball to burton, who held the ball, intending to get it to braswell for a last-second game-winning shot. unable to get the ball to braswell, burton instead drove to the basket himself and rolled in a shot at the buzzer. with the horn and light dismantled, it was not immediately obvious that burtons shot had been in time, and arkansas officials complained that the shot had been too late. a two-minute review by game officials ensued, and after they ruled that burtons shot indeed had beaten the buzzer, georgetown had a 63-61 upset victory. it was georgetowns first ncaa tournament win since 1996 and its first ncaa tournament win at the buzzer since 1988. it was only the third time in 22 ncaa tournament appearances that georgetown had defeated a higher-seeded opponent.