Monroe leads way in easy victory over Mount Saint Mary’s
Last year the matchup with Mount St. Mary’s was a low point on Georgetown’s slate of non-conference warm-ups, a brutal game in which the Hoyas shot 38 percent and relied on 25 free throws for a victory that was far narrower than it should’ve been.
Not this time around. Carrying over the torrid scoring pace from its win two days earlier over Lafayette, Georgetown converted at a 53 percent clip in the first half and coasted in the second in an 83-62 victory over the Mountaineers.
Greg Monroe led the undefeated Hoyas (5-0) with a season-high 19 points and tied a season-high with 11 rebounds, and Chris Wright had four of his 18 points during an 11-2 run to open the second half.
Julian Vaughn had a career-high 14 points and eight rebounds and a career high-tying three blocks.
Fairfax native Jean Cajou had 16 points for the Mountaineers (3-3), who were the preseason favorite in the Northeast Conference.
The Hoyas took a 20-12 lead after Jason Clark (12 points) fed Wright for an easy bucket off an inbound pass and Monroe put in a second and third effort to convert on the glass.
But the Mountaineers used their lightning quick transition game to get behind the unsettled Georgetown defense twice, cutting the lead back to four. The Mount (3-3) had far less success getting inside, where forward Shawn Atupem had shots blocked by Monroe, Vaughn and Henry Sims in the first half.
Austin Freeman’s traditional three-point play stretched the Hoyas’ lead to double digits for the first time, 34-24, and Georgetown pulled away on consecutive three-pointers by Hollis Thompson and Wright en route to a 40-29 halftime lead.
After finishing its three-game homestand Saturday against American, Georgetown next faces two ranked teams on neutral courts – No. 23 Butler at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 8 and No. 12 Washington in Anaheim, Calif., on Dec. 12.
