Hoyas hold Huskies to worst offensive performance of season Georgetown snapped out of the funk that had possessed it in its previous game at Pittsburgh — and found out that its woes pale in comparison to those of Connecticut.
After surviving an early wake-up call, the Hoyas welcomed 18 points, nine rebounds and two steals from Hollis Thompson and held the offensively starved Huskies’ to their worst shooting performance of the season, cruising down the stretch to a 58-44 victory at Verizon Center.
“It was good to have this type of performance because I thought we played well,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. “I thought we played well at both ends of the floor.”
The Huskies (14-7, 4-5), who dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 earlier in the week, shot 30 percent from the field in losing their fourth straight game. But for the first three and a half minutes, they conducted a master class.
Andre Drummond (18 points, seven rebounds), a 6-foot-10, 270-pound freshman and first-round NBA prospect, did what he pleased against Henry Sims (13 points, four rebounds, three assists, seven turnovers), making his first four shots. Jeremy Lamb (14 points), another pro-level talent, found Roscoe Smith for an open jumper and knocked down his own 3-pointer with ease. The Hoyas (17-4, 7-3 Big East) opened with a turnover by Nate Lubick and an airball from Thompson.
After Ryan Boatwright (four assists) found Drummond for an alley oop from six feet with 17:30 left in the first half, Coach Thompson called a timeout and had some stern words.
“?’Let’s not do this,’?” Thompson said he told his players, only more emphatically.
Drummond wasn’t finished, easily rounding Sims for his fourth straight field goal, giving Connecticut a 13-7 lead. But the Huskies, who scored a season-low 48 points in a loss to Notre Dame last weekend, missed their next 13 shots from the field and 20 of 22 shots total over the remainder of the half.
Hollis Thompson’s first 3-pointer — matching his total from Georgetown’s previous two games — gave the Hoyas their first lead at 18-15 with 8:35 remaining in the first half, and his second completed a personal 8-2 run for a 23-17 advantage. Sims had Georgetown’s next six points, following Otto Porter through the middle for a layup and a 29-21 lead.
Lubick found Thompson unguarded on a back cut inside for a 31-21 halftime advantage that was preserved by Shabazz Napier’s forced 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Napier, who was replaced by Boatwright in the starting lineup after going 0-for-7 against the Fighting Irish, finished the night 0-for-9. Boatwright was 0-for-4. Alex Oriakhi, whom Huskies coach Jim Calhoun also left on the bench to start in favor of Roscoe Smith, had three of Connecticut’s first six turnovers.
“Right now, we’re stuck in mud,” Calhoun said. “Our wheels are spinning offensively.”
Lamb’s fast-break layup and a drive by DeAndre Daniels cut Georgetown’s lead to 45-39, but the Hoyas executed perfectly out of a timeout to free Jason Clark (11 points, five rebounds) for a layup. Sims’ thunderous one-handed dunk put his early struggles against Drummond out of the minds of the 15,174 at Verizon Center, and he gave the Hoyas their biggest lead of the night with a reverse layup to make it 55-41.
