What losing streak? After a disheartening week featuring three consecutive losses to tournament and national championship caliber teams, the No. 23 Hoyas emphatically ended their winless drought with a 66-50 pummeling of Rutgers at the MCI Center last night.
“We needed that one,” Head Coach John Thompson III said after his Hoyas bounced back from a 75-65 loss to No. 2 Villanova (21-2, 11-1 BE) last Sunday. “Last week was a long week. I am very happy to win that one.”
A must-win game against one of the conference’s weaker squads, Georgetown (18-7, 9-5 BE) never gave any of the 11,236 in attendance any doubt about the outcome, dominating the Scarlet Knights (15-12, 5-9 BE) in every facet of the game. Sophomore forward Jeff Green’s pump fake lifted two Rutgers defenders in the air and led to a one-handed baseline jam at the 5:45 mark in the first half, which highlighted a 10-2 Georgetown run that gave them a 27-16 lead. The Hoyas would never allow the Scarlet Knights to get within single digits the rest of the game, holding them to 31.1 percent from the floor on the night.
“They defended quite well,” Rutgers Head Coach Gary Waters said. “They shut us down on a lot of things … We could have come in here and played our best game and still lost.”
Waters’ seemingly defeatist attitude was partly attributed to his team’s lack of depth. Without its two most-athletic front court players in six-foot- nine-inch first-year forward JR Inman and junior forward Adrian Hill due to injuries, Rutgers was forced to cycle in a relatively inexperienced cast of characters, with three walk-ons playing at one point in the second half. Sophomore center Roy Hibbert took full advantage of this opportunity, toying with the opposition and pouring in a career-high 25 points to go along with eight rebounds.
“Roy Hibbert has improved 10-fold,” Waters said. “A year ago we played this team twice and he played only nine and 10 minutes … If he continues to grow at this rate you all have a very good player on your hands.”
Hibbert’s efficient six of eight from the floor in the first 20 minutes helped the Hoyas to a 34-20 haltime advantage, as they stomped all over the Scarlet Knights. Georgetown shot 53.6 percent in the half while holding Rutgers to 26 percent. They dished out 11 assists in 15 baskets and held their opponent to only five assists on the entire evening. And with the seven-foot-two-inch mammoth in the paint, the Hoyas secured 23 rebounds to Rutgers’ 10.
“He makes it so much easier for everyone else,” senior swingman Darrel Owens said of Hibbert’s dominance. “It opens things up for our perimeter players … and when we’re in a bind you can just throw it in and something positive will happen.”
The Hoyas opened up an 18-point advantage in the second half on an Owens wing three-pointer with 11:41 to play. The Scarlet Knights responded with an 11-2 run of their own that characteristically featured 10 points from junior guard Quincy Douby. The Hoyas stemmed the tide when Hibbert responded with was shot over senior center Jimmie Inglis and was fouled, completing a three-point play with 4:09 remaining.
While Hibbert was building on his career night, the Rutgers attack was the usual one-man “Quincy Douby Show,” with the Big East’s leading scorer (24.6 ppg) pouring in 29 on nine of 20 from the floor, while only hitting three of 11 from long range.
“Douby is a guy where you’re not going to stop him,” Thompson said. “We tried to make an effort to have one and a half guys on him. Everyone on the floor has to know where he is. He makes long shots, runner and floaters. He’s too good.”
Without Douby, the Scarlet Knights shot a meager 20 percent from the floor. Junior forward Marquis Webb was the only other Rutgers player to make more than one field goal, nailing two shots.
“It wasn’t [Douby] that was the issue,” Waters said. “It was his supporting cast. You can’t beat a team when one guy scores 29 and you’re next guy scoring six. I don’t even want to think about [where we’d be without him].”
While Douby was busy carrying the Knights on his back, Hibbert was aided with 10 points from sophomore guard Jonathan Wallace and 11 points from Owens. As the only three Hoyas in double-figures, the trio kept Rutgers at bay on an off night for seniors Ashanti Cook (3 points) and Brandon Bowman (0 points). Bowman, who scored only four points against Villanova, was held scoreless for the first time all season, missing four field goals and two free throws.
“He will be fine,” Thompson said of Bowman’s play of late. “We went through a bad stretch and he’s going through a bad stretch. Brandon Bowman is an extremely good player and we need him to play well. He’ll snap out of it.”
The Hoyas halted their slide by shooting 52 percent from the floor, out-rebounding Rutgers by 13 and making 26 baskets on 20 assists. However, the team doesn’t feel as if any earth-shattering change occurred in the blowout win.
“Coach Thompson has said in practice we are the same team we were three weeks ago when we were winning all those games,” Owens said. “We just have to take it upon ourselves to just come out and play harder than the next team. It seems like we’ve gotten outplayed and we didn’t want to come back home and have the same thing happen to us that happened to us on the road the last two games.”
Georgetown now looks to start another winning streak as they square off against archrival Syracuse (19-8, 7-6 BE) for Senior Day on Saturday at the MCI Center. Tip-off is slated for noon.
