The No. 7 Georgetown men’s basketball team (23-4, 13-3 Big East) took on Rutgers (13-14, 4-12 Big East) at home Saturday night, bringing in their eleventh win in a row. The first half revealed a close contest as Rutgers did not let the Hoyas pull away with a significant lead, but foul trouble in the second half for the Scarlet Knights would be their undoing. After only leading by 1 point coming into the second half, 16 made free throw attempts would allow the Hoyas to secure a final score of 64-51 over Rutgers.

The stand out performance belonged to none other than sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr., who posted 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals for the Hoyas. No other Georgetown player would break the double-figure mark in scoring but both junior guard Markel Starks and freshman guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera brought in 9 apiece while junior center Moses Ayegba pulled down 7 rebounds. Ayegba was a strong presence down low in the second half as he helped Georgetown out-rebound Rutgers 35 to 27 in the game.

“Well, I know who I’m voting for for BIG EAST Player of the Year,” said Rutgers Head Coach Mike Rice of Porter in his opening statement.

This matchup was physical throughout as it ended with a total of 51 combined personal fouls for the two teams. Porter alone was sent to the line to take 18 attempts, of which he made 15 and gave Georgetown an offensive boost that was reflected in the final score. With the Rutgers defenders prone to fouling, Porter noticeably took the ball inside more frequently instead of relying on long jumpers.

“That’s the way tonight played out. They were very physical. There were a lot of fouls made during that game at both ends. In the second half, both of us were in the 1-and-1 with 15 minutes left. It’s one of those games that puts pressure on the officials, because when there’s a foul called every possession down the court, then they start looking at the scoreboard,” said Head Coach John Thompson III.

The Hoyas effectively emulated their signature stingy defense as Rutgers struggled mightily to get the ball inside for the better part of the game. Their 54 field goal attempts were a direct effect of tough defense from Georgetown. The Hoyas managed to keep the Scarlet Knights out on the perimeter for the most part while not committing an exorbitant number of fouls. Rutgers only took 15 free throws and, luckily for the Hoyas, only made 6 of those.

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The Georgetown Men’s basketball team (16-4, 6-3 Big East) defeated St. John’s (14-8, 6-4 Big East) at the Verizon Center earlier today with a score of 68-56 in front of 15,000 Gray Out fans. The Hoyas were led by junior forward Nate Lubick as he scored a career-high 16 points and secured 10 rebounds to earn his first double-double. Georgetown has now won six of their last seven games, with that stretch beginning the first time they faced St. Johns at Madison Square Garden on January 12. Today also marked Head Coach John Thompson III’s 200th win with the Hoyas.

The Hoyas came out strong both offensively and defensively in the first half against the Johnnies. Shooting 58 percent from the field, they were able to score 39 points by the end of the half, which included 5 three-pointers. Rebounding was also a high point in the early going as the Hoyas out-rebounded the Red Storm 21 to 9, five of these coming as part of the day’s standout performance by Lubick. Sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. got off to a solid start in the first half by making all three of his shots for 7 points, but with just over 7:30 left he was subbed out and would not return until the second half.

“He’s been playing at a very high level for a long time now, to tell you the truth. I said a couple of games ago, he wasn’t up here, but I said Nate gave us quality stats, not quantity stats. When we need something done, he gets a rebound, makes an assist, gets a basket. He’s been doing that consistently and tonight was no exception,” said Thompson III of Lubick’s play.

St. John’s was held to just 34 percent shooting, but was able to keep the score within 11 by making 8 of 12 free throw attempts. The half was topped off with another acrobatic play coming from sophomore forward Aaron Bowen. Freshman guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera bounced a three-point attempt off the rim when Bowen came running in from outside the three-point line to emphatically dunk the rebound.

The offense slowed down considerably in the second half for Georgetown as St. John’s was able to tighten up their defense in the paint and force shots from the perimeter. The Hoyas tossed up one more shot than in the first half but were only able to get 10 of them to go, dropping down to 46% shooting for the game. St. John’s also stepped up their rebounding on both sides of the court with 25 compared to Georgetown’s 20, allowing them to keep the score marginally close without much help from free throws.

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The #19 Georgetown men’s basketball team (11-3, 1-2) traveled to New York City to face Big East rival St. John’s (9-7, 1-3) yesterday morning. The team was without their second leading scorer in sophomore forward Greg Whittington as it was announced before the game that he had violated a team rule and would be left off the roster. The Hoyas did not seem fazed though as they ran the Red Storm for 67 points while holding their opponent to a mere 51.

“As a team, we just had to come together and certain people had to step up to carry the load. It’s a team effort,” said sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. of playing without Whittington.

Sophomore guard Jabril Trawick got the start in Whittington’s absence and started the game’s scoring off with a dunk. The Hoyas did not stop there as superb passing from Porter and junior forward Nate Lubick as well as strong transition efforts from junior guard Markel Starks led the team to take an early lead at 19-8.

Georgetown was seemingly able to shake off the rust that had hung with them after the break and came out with purpose from the get-go. St. John’s could not handle the smothering defense bearing down on them as they were either forced to run down the shot clock or choose more difficult shots. Georgetown pulled away with much help from Porter to make the score 33-10 with only five minutes left in the half. Read the rest of this entry »

The No. 15 Georgetown men’s basketball team (8-1, 0-0 Big East) defeated Longwood (2-7, 0-0 Big South) in blowout fashion Monday Night at the Verizon Center, 89-53, improving their winning streak to five games.

In a manner contrary to their past few games, the Hoyas played a complete game on both ends of the floor. Overall, the team shot an effective 53 percent from the field.  Sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. led the way for the Hoyas with a career-high 22 points, shooting an efficient 8-of-11 from the field. Porter also dished out seven assists, another career-high.

Junior guard Markel Starks had a good game as well, with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three-point land. Otherwise, Georgetown’s scoring was relatively balanced, with five other players scoring at least six points.

“It’s good that the ball went in the basket today,” said Head Coach John Thompson III. “Most of the looks we got were wide open shots.”

The Georgetown defense, especially their full-court press, created many problems for the Longwood offense. The Hoyas forced 30 Lancer turnovers, the most forced by the Hoyas since they forced 32 against Elon on Dec. 13, 2003. Georgetown took advantage of the ample turnovers with many easy baskets, illustrated by their 50 points in the paint, 47 points off of turnovers, and 18 fast-break points.

“I thought our full-court defense, pressure, and presses were very effective,” Thompson noted. “Our pressure definitely affected Longwood in the half-court as well as the full-court.”

Despite the convincing scoreline, the Hoyas found room for concern, as they were inexplicably outrebounded by a much shorter Longwood team, 30-22.

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After a frustrating 46-40 win against an inferior Towson (4-5, 0-0 CAA) opponent this past Saturday, No. 15 ranked Georgetown (7-1, 0-0 Big East) will be back in action tonight, as they take on Longwood (2-6, 0-0 Big South) at the Verizon Center at 7 p.m.

The Hoyas will look to improve upon their offensive performance against Towson, as they shot only 29 percent from the field, including an anemic 12 percent from three-point land. This marks the second time in the last three games in which they have scored under 50 points, yet still have won. Head Coach John Thompson III expressed some concern about his team’s offense following the game.

“It’s got to get better,” said Coach Thompson. “I told the guys this, at this point we have a lot of growing up to do. We’re immature offensively, in that we have a lot of guys that are trying to figure out what to do, what reads to make and it’s something we have to work on.”

One thing the Hoyas can be proud of is their stifling defense. Coming into Monday’s matchup against Longwood, the Hoyas have held their last four opponents under 50 points, including their last three which they have held their opponents to under 42 points. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes at the end of a disappointing day, you have to take a step back and look at what you’ve accomplished in the recent past. More often than not, that off day is an abnormality in a sea of success. One can only hope the Georgetown men’s soccer team keeps this in mind as they look back on an incredible season marred only by a loss to Indiana University in the 2012 College Cup.

The game against Indiana began nervously. Both Georgetown and Indiana couldn’t quite get the ball completely under control. Many a time, the ball was popped up into the air and wouldn’t come down again for some time as both teams headed it back and forth. There were some nervous moments for the Georgetown defense as they struggled to clear the few chances Indiana managed.

The Hoyas first real chance came when sophomore Tyler Rudy received a cross in the box and powered a shot towards the Indiana goal, but was saved by IU keeper Luis Soffner.

The Hoyas would begin to feel the heat as Indiana found a few chances. Hoya fans breathed a sigh of relief as Indiana squandered a chance from a header. Georgetown sophomore goalkeeper Tomas Gomez came up huge in the following minutes. An Indiana forward found a way through a woeful Georgetown defense, but was stopped in his tracks as soon as Gomez came off his line to collect the ball.  Read the rest of this entry »

20 minutes in, it was déjà vu for the Georgetown Hoyas (7-1, 0-0 Big East) at the Verizon Center, in more ways than one. First, the Hoyas put up jut 17 points in the half, shooting 16.7 percent from the field, in an offensive performance reminiscent of their 37-36 win against Tennessee just a week prior. Then, of course, their opponent featured a familiar face as junior Georgetown transfer Jerrelle Benimon led Towson with 11 points and 16 rebounds.

But the Hoyas ultimately prevailed, as they have on most nights this season, winning the ugly affair 46-40. They won despite facing a scrappy Towson team that seemed to know what was coming during every Hoya offensive possession. Credit that to Benimon.

“I could read stuff,” he said of Georgetown’s Princeton sets. “I played in the offense, so it’s just a whole bunch of reads, so once you see one thing you can sniff it out. It helped a lot, especially in the first half.”

Even Georgetown’s Head Coach John Thompson III admitted as much, saying the Tigers successfully took the Hoyas out of their offensive flow, a difference from the Tennessee matchup where there seemed to be a figurative lid on the basket.

“I felt this was much different than the Tennessee game, because against Tennessee we were getting point blank shots that weren’t going in,” he said. “Today our flow wasn’t as good as it needed to be in both halves.”

Early on, the Hoyas were having trouble getting shots to drop early on in the first half, but sophomore Otto Porter Jr. ended the dry streak with a three pointer almost five minutes into the game. Towson kept their defense dense and forced the Hoyas to shoot the ball from the perimeter, which on an average day would have been positive.

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The Georgetown men’s soccer team has kept their run for a championship alive as they defeated the University of Maryland tonight in a penalty kick shootout. The Hoyas slotted four penalty shots past the Maryland keeper opposed to only three by the Terps, pushing them through to the program’s first College Cup championship game. They will play Indiana University this Sunday, December 9 at 2:00 p.m.

It was Maryland who struck first with a goal in the 22nd minute though off a flick into the box that was then headed past sophomore goalkeeper Tomas Gomez, putting the burden on Georgetown to respond. Upon further review the goal’s integrity was put into question because a Maryland forward was clearly offside when Schillo Tshuma scored. Junior forward Steve Neumann did not let the Terps settle into a rhythm, though, when just over ten minutes later he fired a shot left of the Maryland keeper for the equalizer. The ball originated on the outside left and was crossed inside the 18’ where sophomore midfielder Tyler Rudy headed it back to Neumann who put it in the back of the net.

Neumann was back at it only two minutes later when he received the ball just outside the 18’ and sent it off the left post, bouncing into the goal for his and Georgetown’s second. After falling behind, Maryland began to step up their offensive pressure with several opportunities on the Hoyas’ defensive half. Gomez and the defenders kept the Terps from scoring though as the minutes ran down and the half ended with a 2-1 Georgetown lead.

Three minutes into the start of the second half, the Hoyas put another goal on the board when Maryland keeper Keith Cardona attempted to clear a ball out of the box but was met by freshman forward Brandon Allen, who knocked his kick right past him and in to make the score 3-1. From this point on the Terps began to infiltrate Georgetown’s defensive half more effectively with wide sweeps down the lines and through balls into the box. In the 59th minute, Maryland began their comeback when they were able to drive the ball inside the 18’ and chip it to Tshuma in the middle, who volleyed it past Gomez.

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