Hoyas repel charging Hawks

December 2, 2015 - Tonight before a listed 4,062 Verizon Center fans, Georgetown fought off a second half, Maryland Eastern Shore assault, eventually prevailing 68-49. The victor's head coach, John Thompson III was happy to get come out on top.

"At this point we need wins" said Thompson. He was impressed with G'Town's most recent foe, later suggesting of UMES (1-5) "And so when you look at their record, and then you watch them on film, they're going to be really good before the year is over. And I think it might be sooner than later with that group".

The Hoyas (3-3) entered the second half up 38-20, and despite enduring a 12-2 Hawk run between 12:03 and 9:03, would never lead by less than 11 to close the game. Thompson's guys shot 44.7% from the field and 33.3% on three pointers and never trailed.

Pacing Georgetown and the Hoyas in scoring was senior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, finishing with with 30 points and also adding three rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block. Smith-Rivera hit his first shot, a three pointer with just south of two, first half minutes expended, and never looked back. Personally he canned 50% of this three pointers (5-10) and 10-16 or 62.5% overall from the field.

Nevertheless the Hawks competed, leading their coach, Bobby Collins to surmise "This game right here tonight, second half (a slim 30-29 point GU advantage) made us realize we can play with anybody. They just have to trust each other and trust the coaches".

UMES finished at 36% from the field while hitting a third (33%, 5-15) of their three pointers.

Buttressing both coach's claims of future Hawk success was a rather unique zone, of which Thompson noted "their defense is unorthodox, they keep you off balance". Collins felt the scheme "slowed them (G'Town) down tonight. They scored in transition, not really against our zone".

Sophomore guard Ryan Andino was the top UMES scorer, finishing with 16 points. The senior duo of Devin Martin, a guard and forward Dominique Elliott, dropped 12 points, four rebounds and 11 points, five boards, respectively.

Bradley Hayes, G'Town's senior center joined the double digit scoring club, accounting for 11 points, with five being scored from the foul line, while going 3-7 from the field. As UMES' Collins noted "We didn't allow them to get the ball inside much" to Hayes or freshman pivot Jessie Govan (two points, five rebounds), due to their zone. This, despite a marked size differential.

Up next for both teams are big games.

Georgetown welcomes Syracuse on Saturday, the first time two bitter ex-BIG EAST rivals will face each other since 2013, after which the Orange became an ACC school. Tip off is 1p at Verizon Center. Be sure to follow HoyaReport.com for the game's BEST coverage.

UMES gets its first taste of league play, when returning MEAC regular season champion North Carolina Central travels to Princess Anne, MD for a 4p start.