Hoyas win in ugly fashion

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No. 15 Georgetown Puts Four in Double Figures to Pull Away from Towson, 46-40

WASHINGTON - No. 15 Georgetown University won another defensive battle this Saturday afternoon, putting four players in double figures and overcoming a poor shooting performance, as the Hoyas trumped Towson, 46-40, in front of 8,322 fans at Verizon Center.

It was the fourth-straight win for the Hoyas, who improved to 7-1 overall, while Towson falls to 4-5.

It was a balanced effort from the starting five today from the Hoyas; with sophomore Greg Whittington (Columbia, Md./ Oakland Mills) scoring a game-high 11 points. Sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. (Morley, Mo./ Scott County Central) and junior Nate Lubick (Southborough, Mass. / St. Mark's) put up 10 points each. Also with 10 points, Mikael Hopkins (Hyattsville, Md./ Dematha) shot 8-of-12 from the free throw line, with 10 attempts in the second half.

Georgetown trailed for most of the first half, but took a 17-15 lead at the break on a dunk from Whittington. The Tigers responded quickly in the second half, when Towson's Jerrelle Benimon tied the game back at 17-17 in the first 26 seconds. A Georgetown transfer, Benimon led his new team with 11 points and 16 rebounds in the game.

The second half of the game featured a close back-and-forth struggle, with seven lead-changes and seven ties. After connecting on only 16.7 percent of their shots from the field in the first half (5-of-30), the Hoyas improved their field goal percentage to 50 percent, scoring 21 points off of 22 Towson turnovers.

Georgetown began to pull away in the final five minutes, however, with a layup from Lubick followed immediately by a wide-open dunk from Whittington to give the Hoyas their second five-point lead of the game, 42-37, with 4:53 to play. Towson remained close behind, however, with a three-pointer from Benimon with 4:37 left making 42-40.

Hopkins hit 1-of-2 free throws with 4:04 on the clock and the Hoyas forced three turnovers and one missed shot in the ensuing three minutes. Entering the final minute with a three-point lead, GU got a crucial basket produced off of a jump shot from Georgetown's leading scorer Markel Starks (Accokeek, Md. / Georgetown Prep) and a free throw from freshman D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Indianapolis, Ind./Oak Hill) to push the lead to 46-40.

When the first half closed at 17-15, it seemed as though the game was going to be a repeat of Georgetown's unusually low scoring win over Tennessee, 37-36, the previous week. The Hoyas trailed 4-0 to the Tigers in the opening minutes, creating the largest lead either team would take in first half. It took GU just under four minutes to respond, when Porter Jr. put Georgetown on the board, 4-3, at the 16-minute mark.

A dunk by Whittington with 37 seconds remaining in the half gave Georgetown the 2-point lead the Hoyas would take off the court. After shooting 16.7 percent for field goals, the Hoyas left the half having scored under 20 points for the second time this season.

The Hoyas are back in action on Monday, Dec. 10, hosting Longwood at Verizon Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. The game will be shown live on MASN and can be heard locally on ESPN 980 AM.