Georgetown has taken a tumble in the polls after losing three of four coming into this one. The Hoyas are ranked 19th in the Associated Press poll and 20th in the coaches poll. The Hoyas will be without leading scorer Austin Freeman. Freeman missed a large portion of Georgetown’s loss to Notre Dame due to sickness. Freeman traveled to Morgantown with the team but got sick again Sunday night. He returned to the Georgetown campus earlier Monday, so he is not with the team tonight.
–Georgetown having success early getting it inside against the Mountaineer man to man. Julian Vaughn and Greg Monroe have both been effective inside. Monroe also made a great play in transition as he caught the ball on the wing and spun inside to the basket.
–Early look for freshman Dan Jennings. Jennings got in for a few seconds and got a shot off before he was replaced by John Flowers at the first media timeout.
–Moountaineers took control of this one with a quick run of eight consecutive points over a 1:23 span. Then after Chris Wright scored for Georgetown, Da’Sean Butler hit a three making it an 11-2 run over a 2:18 span. No jitters for Butler on senior night. Butler scored 12 of WVU’s first 30 points.
–Casey Mitchell’s three at the 4:50 mark gave WVU a 15 point lead. Mitchell then scored in transition to make it a 16 point advantage. The Mountaineers have forced Georgetown into 10 turnovers in the first 16-minutes. The Hoyas average just 14 turnovers per game. WVU scored 11 points off those first 10 turnovers.
–Mountaineers shot 52% from the field in the first half and WVU made free throws again going 8-10 in the half. The Mountaineers hit five threes while forcing 12 turnovers. WVU scored 14 points off turnovers compared to zero for WVU.
–Kevin Jones got off to the hot start in the second half with six early points. WVU forced four more Georgetown turnovers in the first three minutes of the half. Georgetown now has 16 turnovers. Again, the Hoyas average 14 turnovers per game.
–Georgetown getting back into the game by shooting well while the Mountaineers went cold. WVU was shooting just 27% from the field in the first 14:00 of the second half. Georgetown was down 27 points at 53-26. The Hoyas got to within nine and had the ball with 5:30 to play when WVU went to the point-drop for the first time. On the other end, WVU went over 5:00 without a field goal.
–Mountaineers hit enough free throws down the stretch to wrap up an 81-68 win. WVU clinches a double bye in the Big East Tournament as they won’t play until Thursday in New York. They also set a school record with 12 Big East Conference victories. The Mountaineers close the regular season with a noon tip time at Villanova Saturday.