Hoyas send Eagles packing

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WASHINGTON - Sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. (Morley, Mo./Scott County Central) had his third double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds, leading No. 15 Georgetown to a 65-48 win over American in front of 9,867 fans at Verizon Center Saturday afternoon. It was the ninth-straight win in the series against the Eagles.

The win was the seventh-straight overall for the Hoyas, who improve to 10-1 overall, while American falls to 4-8.

Porter Jr. connected on 5-of-10 shots from the field and hit 3-of-4 from three-point land while tying a season-high with 13 rebounds for his sixth career double-double.

Sophomore forward Greg Whittington (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) chipped in with 13 points and four rebounds, while sophomore center Mikael Hopkins (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha) added nine points, and had a career-high five assists, and junior Nate Lubick (Southborough, Mass./St. Marks) scored six points and had a season-high 9 rebounds.

Leading by 15 points (40-25) at the break, Georgetown started off the second half with an 8-0, pushing their lead to 23 points, 48-25, on a jumper from Hopkins with 17;34 to play in the game.

The Georgetown defense, which has held eight opponents to 60 points or fewer this season, held the Eagles scoreless for the first 3 minutes and 19 seconds of the second half.

The Hoyas brought the crowd to their feet following an alley-oop assisted by Porter and finished by sophomore Jabril Trawick (Philadelphia, Pa./Abington Friends), which gave the Blue & Gray their biggest lead of the game, 60-34, with 9:56 to play in the game.

AU responded immediately, however, and went on a 12-0 run, cutting Georgetown's lead to 14 (60-46) with 3:08 remaining in the game. The Hoyas closed out their scoring with an acrobatic layup from Trawick and three points from Lubick in the final two minutes to create the 17-point cushion, 65-48.

The Hoyas took off to a quick lead in the first half, outscoring the Eagles 10-3 in the first five minutes of play. A three-pointer at 14:59 from American's Marko Vasic, who shot 3-for-5 for three's in the game, cut the Hoya's lead down to four. A three-point field goal from Starks in the following 15 seconds reestablished Georgetown's lead, which did not dip beneath six points for the remainder of the half. The Hoyas closed the first half after an 8-point run, which pushed their lead to 15-points (40-25), the largest so far in the game.

Trawick finished the game with seven points, four rebounds and four assists as the Georgetown bench scored 15 points, with freshman guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Indianapolis, Ind./Oak Hill) scored eight points as well.

The Hoyas shot 44.2 percent from the floor (23-of-52), including a blistering 55.6 percent in the first half (15-of-27). GU shot 47.6 percent from three-point land (10-of-21) and was 9-of-12 from the free throw line (75.0%).

Georgetown held a 42-30 advantage on the boards and handed out 18 assists.

The Hoyas will travel to Wisconsin for their next game, where they will compete in their first BIG EAST Conference game of the season against Marquette. The game will be played on January 5 at 2 p.m., and can be viewed on MASN.