Georgetown 72, Butler 65

Greg Monroe turned in the best game of his career, scoring 24 points and hauling in 15 rebounds, both career highs, while Austin Freeman scored 18 points to lead Georgetown to an impressive 72-65 victory over #20 Butler Tuesday night in MSG.   Catch all the highlights here.

After early see-saw action, Monroe made a drop-step lay-up, sparking a 10-0 run  that  put the Hoyas up 20-11 and ahead for good. Butler stayed close through much of the first half, largely thanks to the shooting of reserve guard Zach Hahn, who finished with 11 points and looks like Ollie from Hoosiers. Monroe’s last-second lay-in capped a 14-point first half and put the Hoyas up 8 heading into the break, 39-31.

Georgetown brought the D to open the second half, holding Butler to just four points over the first six-plus minutes, and stretching its lead to 52-35.   Butler struggled to get clean looks the whole game, shooting just 31% from the field, while Georgetown owned the paint,  grabbing 43 rebounds to Butler’s 30, blocking 9 shots to Butler’s 3, and holding Butler forward Matt Howard to just 1-of-9 shooting.

The Hoyas went dry, though, turning the ball over five times in as many minutes, and racking up  fouls to put Butler in the double bonus with eight minutes to play.  Butler made a charge–more like trench warfare–capped by Gordon Hayward’s theree-pointer to cut the deficit to seven, 54-47.   Monroe righted the ship with consecutive baskets to push the margin back to nine, and the Hoyas closed out the game from the free-throw line.

The win was one Hoya fans have been hoping for.  We knew Georgetown ascended to #13 primarily on attrition, and we wondered about its ability to play with ranked competition, given that the Temple debacle was our glimpse of a quality opponent.   We also knew that Monroe was better than his already-good stats suggested, and that he had yet to really put the team on his back for a game.  Last, we knew that Freeman had been good-but-not-great this year, seeming content to be a valuable role player.  That changed Tuesday night; Monroe was the man, Freeman stepped up, and the Hoyas topped a good opponent.  Good feelings abound for the first time since last year’s beat-down of Connecticut–let’s hope this one turns out better than last.

The Hoyas return to action Saturday against #16 Washington in Anaheim, Calif.