Going back to the days of John Thompson Jr., Georgetown basketball has had a history of powerful big men patrolling the post, and on Saturday afternoon American learned that tradition lives on.
The Hoyas (6-0) dispatched an overmatched Eagles squad 73-46, in their final tune-up before back-to-back games against ranked teams. Georgetown’s big man trio of Greg Monroe, Julian Vaughn, and Henry Sims used their physical advantage to great effect against a team that played only one player taller than 6-foot-8.
“I was real pleased with our effort. I think our guys really competed,” American head coach Jeff Jones said. “But Georgetown was just too good.”
The Hoyas’ superiority was apparent by the final buzzer, but things got off to a slow start, with American taking a 7-4 lead five minutes into the game. But at the 14-minute mark Julian Vaughn ended a four minute scoreless stretch with a transition lay-up, and a subsequent Hollis Thompson three put the Hoyas ahead for good.
Georgetown hardly dominated the first half, however, allowing American to stick around with a number of second chance opportunities. Despite their height advantage the Hoyas held just a one rebound advantage at halftime, with the Eagles pulling down seven offensive rebounds. Georgetown led 34-23 at the break.
“I’m not concerned about slow starts,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said. “I’m more concerned about us not coming out in the first half as focused on the things we need to be focused on: getting stops, allowing them second shots. We’ve come out in the second half and we’ve been pretty good for a couple of games now, but we have to make sure that we walk out of the locker room focused and ready to go.”
The Hoyas’ halftime lead was largely thanks to the efforts of sophomore guard Jason Clark, who continued to demonstrate his defensive intuition. On multiple occasions Clark picked off the Eagles’ passes, often turning them into crowd-pleasing fast break dunks. He finished with five steals on the game.
“We were lucky to have Jason out there in the first half,” Thompson said. “That’s what a team is about. Today it was Jason making plays at that particular time when we needed. Other games it will be someone else making plays.”
In the second half Georgetown quickly pulled away. The Hoyas reasserted their authority on the boards and opened the half on a 16-4 run, a scoring barrage from which the Eagles never recovered.
The Hoyas dominated the interior, outscoring the Eagles in the paint 40-14. Georgetown shut down American’s leading scorer, 6-foot-8 forward Stephen Lumpkins, limiting the sophomore to two points on 1-of-17 shooting.
Georgetown’s big men accomplished a lot on the offensive end as well. Vaughn continued to show off an improved low post game, scoring 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Monroe had nine points and led the team in rebounding with 13 boards. Sims may have been most impressive, scoring a career high 12 points in just 13 minutes.
The trio also accounted for eight of the Hoyas’ nine blocks.
“You look at those 9 blocked shots, basically they were layups, and I would say pretty high percentage shots against anybody we’ve played to this point,” Jones said. “They just do a great job with Monroe and Vaughn and Sims and all those guys in there of taking away any easy opportunities.”
It was the third consecutive game Georgetown won by a margin of greater than 20 points. But starting Tuesday the team faces a new level of opponents, taking on No. 20 Butler and then No. 10 Washington. It seems the Hoyas have started to hit their stride, but Thompson knows his team still has a long way to go.
“I don’t know if I ever say we’re where I think we should be, but we’re getting better,” Thompson said. “I think we are a significantly better team today than at the start of the season. And hopefully we keep moving in that direction.”
Great stuff Coach Thompson! Let’s Go Get Butler!