The Georgetown men’s basketball team (12-4, 2-3) traveled to Tampa, Florida on Saturday to face the Bulls of the University of South Florida (10-7, 1-4). The Hoyas went into the game riding two Big East wins over Providence and St. Johns. However, this game seemed to be a return to the rough start of conference play.

After a slow start, the Hoyas pulled ahead, leading by 8 at the half. However, a flurry of three pointers from the Bulls changed the game. After missing most of their attempts in the first half, USF made 7 of their first 9 three point shots in the second half. This caused the Hoyas to have to play the catch-up game for the second half, eventually falling 58-61.

South Florida thrived behind the strong play of sophomore guard Anthony Collins, who scored all of his 14 points in the second half. With a 58-59 deficit in the last 30 seconds, Head Coach John Thompson III called two timeouts to set up a play for the game-winning shot. This shot never came as sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. lost his dribble with 3 seconds to go. South Florida then hit two free throws to extend their lead. Porter’s half court shot at the buzzer rattled off the rim.

The Hoyas clearly missed the play of sophomore forward Greg Whittington who was the squad’s second leading scorer before he was declared academically ineligible. Porter Jr. has stepped up his play recently, scoring 60 points in the last three games, including 21 last night. Freshman guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera has stepped up with Georgetown’s lineup being cut down in Whittington’s absence, scoring 16 points, his first double-digit performance since the second game of the season. Unfortunately, the play of Porter Jr. and Smith-Rivera was not able to bring the Hoyas past their overall sloppy play, which led to an -11 turnover deficit in the game.

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After substantially defeating two future Catholic 7 members, Georgetown (12-3, 2-2 Big East) will look to pick up a third straight win against South Florida (9-7, 0-4 Big East) tonight in Tampa, Florida. The Hoyas will look to claim a winning record in Big East play while the Bulls will try to pick up their first Big East win of the year.

On Wednesday, Georgetown surged to a 38-19 lead over Providence by halftime but Providence came back in the second half to reduce the lead to seven points. The Blue and Gray would go on to win, though, 74-65.

The Hoyas have shown more offensive firepower over the past two games even though they have been playing without their second leading scorer, sophomore forward Greg Whittington. They have averaged 70.5 points per game in that span – an improvement from averaging 46.5 points per game in their losses to Marquette and Pittsburgh.

“We are playing at a much faster pace than we had at the beginning of the season,” junior guard Markel Starks said on Wednesday night. “That is us playing as a unit playing and more together. As long as we keep sharing the ball and playing together, we will be fine.”

One of the reasons for this offensive explosion has been the increased scoring of sophomore forward Otto Porter Jr. Porter Jr. has tallied 39 points over the past two games, 20 against Providence and 19 against St. Johns. In addition, Starks has upped his scoring over the past two games, posting 16 points against Providence and 17 points against St. John’s.

“[Porter and Starks] are back in to that rhythm,” Head Coach John Thompson III said after the win over Providence. “Both of these guys were very good today.”

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Many things stopped for Hurricane Sandy: campus was closed, classes were cancelled, and parts of the New York City subway system shut down for the first time in its history. But has the Georgetown women’s soccer team slowed their roll in the Big East? Not a chance.

The Hoyas were out in full force on Sunday as they beat DePaul University 1-0 at North Kehoe Field in the quarterfinal match of the Big East tournament. Players and officials alike kept an eye on the sky as the Hoyas opened with aggressive play, winning two free kicks in the opening three minutes of the game.

Georgetown’s goal would come in the ninth minute when Daphne Corboz delivered the Hoyas’ third corner kick. Her delivery found its way to freshman midfielder Marina Paul. Paul promptly headed the ball into the box and junior forward Colleen Dinn knocked the ball into the net using the back of her head.

Try as they might, the Hoyas couldn’t capitalize on any of the other chances they created during the first half. A notable miss came in the 17th minute when Corboz had a soaring shot saved by DePaul goalkeeper Megan Pyrz. Pyrz again denied her in the 30th minute.

DePaul only managed one decent effort on goal when Amber Paul took a shot that was easily saved by goalkeeper Emma Newins. Their lack of chances carried over into the second half where Georgetown outshot DePaul 7-3. Sophomore Jessica Clinton and junior Mary Kroening would both see attempts on goal come to nothing.

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Photos: Abby Greene

The Georgetown Hoyas (18-4, 8-3 Big East) followed up a sluggish first half by outscoring South Florida (13-10, 6-4 Big East) 52-30 in the second half en route to a 75-45 victory at the Verizon Center. The Hoyas attacked the Bulls with a balanced attack highlighted by resurgent performances from sophomores Nate Lubick and Markel Starks. Senior Henry Sims was one of five Hoyas in double figures with 13 points, also leading the team with nine rebounds and five assists.

Sophomore Special

The two sophomores have been struggling of late, with Starks’s point guard duties mostly relegated to senior guard Jason Clark and the majority of Lubick’s minutes falling to freshman Otto Porter. After picking up two early fouls, Starks found his shot in the second half, finishing with 10 points on the day. Though Lubick only scored five points, his offense came during a stretch where the Hoyas broke the game open in the middle of the second half.

On an offensive possession 11 minutes into the second half, Clark carelessly turned it over to USF’s Jawanza Poland, but then recovered quickly and intercepted Pollard’s pass. Seeing the Bulls’ defense out of sorts, he flipped it to Lubick for a strong layup, leading to a three-point play.

“I turned the ball over, got back and made a play, got a steal and they were out of sync trying to get back on defense,” Clark said of the play. “Nate was wide open under the basket.”

After that sequence, the Hoyas started dazzling the crowd, as a Jabril Trawick steal about two minutes later led to a Lubick dunk (and subsequent technical foul for hanging on the rim). About two minutes later, Lubick found a cutting Porter who then found Sims driving along the baseline for an easy layup. The stretch marked the team’s high point in picking apart a stingy USF defense that only allowed 59.0 points per game coming into the game.

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When we last left our Hoyas

Henry Sims did this, and Georgetown trounced UConn 58-44 to bounce back from a disappointing loss at Pittsburgh. Hollis Thompson, who had been mostly quiet for the past two games, roared back to life, dropping 18 points and nine rebounds while also making some key plays on the defensive end.

As good as the Hoyas looked, however, the Huskies were impressively bad. UConn was an amazing 2-for-20 from beyond the arc, and preseason All-American Jeremy Lamb and sophomore guard Shabazz Napier combined to go 4-for-27 from the field. If the Huskies could have just knocked down some wide open jumpers, this would have been a much less convincing win.

Tomorrow’s villain

Many teams in the Big East have made a mockery of their preseason expectations, but no one may be as surprising as South Florida. After years of slumming it with the likes of DePaul and Rutgers, the Bulls somehow find themselves with a 6-3 conference record. That’s right: if USF wins Saturday, they’ll jump ahead of the Hoyas into third place.

That seems like a long shot, however. The Bulls’ are the beneficiaries of what might be the easiest possible Big East schedule so far–their best win is probably a one-point home victory over Seton Hall. Over their past two games USF has lost by 20 to Marquette and barely beat Providence.

That’s not to say USF is a paper tiger. In years past, the Bulls struggled to even beat bad teams. They’ve found a way to succeed this year by getting contributions from all over their roster (10 players average at least 15 minutes per game). The Bulls’ best player is probably senior forward Augustus Gilchrist, but he’s actually been a bit of a disappointment, averaging just over 10 points and five rebounds per game.

Key to the game

Don’t get distracted. Despite their record, USF just isn’t at the same level talent-wise as Georgetown. This should be an easy win for the Hoyas–as long as they are focused on their execution against the Bulls and not last Wednesday’s win or next Wednesday’s apocalyptic showdown in Syracuse.

Player to watch

Dominique Jones. Well, not literally. The former USF guard is currently riding the pine for the Dallas Mavericks, but the specter of Jones will be the scariest thing in the Verizon Center tomorrow morning. Exactly two years ago, the Bulls came to the Verizon Center and dealt a demoralizing 72-64 loss to a Hoyas squad riding high off a big victory over Duke. Jones dropped 29 points and, at the end of the game, gloated to the student section. That was the last time the Bulls came to Washington, D.C. So yeah, the Hoyas don’t want to let that happen again.

The Hoyas took care of business against South Florida, just as well as they needed to. Well, technically all they needed to do was win by one, but if Georgetown couldn’t beat that Bulls squad by a significant margin, it would not bode well for tomorrow’s game.

But the Hoyas won by 20, in spite of Austin Freeman’s worst shooting performance of the season, just 25 minutes from Greg Monroe, and other assorted foul trouble. Of course, the Hoyas also won thanks to 29.1 percent shooting by USF. Either way, Georgetown played well enough to make you think they could beat Syracuse.

That’s a good thing, because Georgetown needs to beat Syracuse tomorrow. The Hoyas need to win, not for any kind of big picture reason like NCAA seeding, but because the Orange are their most hated rival, and it would be unbearable to lose to them three times in a season. It’s only happened once before: 2002-03, the season Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse to a national championship.

This year, the Orange once again look like they may be on their way to a national title. So that’s the precedent—lose tomorrow and subject America to an Orange national champion (and worse, let Syracuse come to D.C. to be honored at the White House).

After the jump, see what JTIII had to say about ‘Cuse today, and more Hoya news

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Read Tim Shine’s postgame coverage in Voice sports.

Photos by Jackson Perry

With their 58-49 victory over a hapless DePaul this afternoon, South Florida advances to take on Georgetown in the Hoyas’ Big East Tournament opener tomorrow at noon.

Hoya fans need not be reminded that this will be the two teams’ second meeting this season, after the Bulls’ 72-64 upset of then-No. 8 Georgetown at the Verizon Center. It goes without saying that the Hoyas will be looking for revenge on Wednesday.

Georgetown will be well-prepared for Big East scoring leader Dominique Jones and the Bulls this time around. Of course, it’s not like the Hoyas weren’t prepared for the 6-foot-4 guard before—and Jones still dropped 29 points on them. Georgetown will do it’s best to contain Jones, but he’s a prolific scorer and will get his looks.

The biggest adjustment the Hoyas will have to make from last game is in accounting for Augustus Gilchrist. The sophomore big man didn’t play against Georgetown because of an ankle injury, but he’s probably USF’s second-best player and averages close to 15 points a game.

If USF plays tomorrow like it did against DePaul, however, Georgetown might not have much to worry about. The Bulls weren’t very impressive while dispatching the Blue Demons, who won just one conference game. DePaul hung around late in the game, and USF had almost no outside game to speak of.

And by almost no outside game, I mean that the Bulls converted one field goal outside the lane; they scored 50 points in the paint, hit six free throws, and missed on all eight three-point attempts. Greg Monroe and Julian Vaughn will have something to say if the Bulls try to win that way tomorrow.

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