What a brutal way to lose such a hardfought game. Georgetown, with 10 freshmen and sophomores, went up to the Carrier Dome and outplayed Syracuse for 45 minutes. Yet, the experienced Orange prevailed where the young Hoyas couldn't. Kris Joseph hit a dagger 3 pointer with 26 seconds left in overtime to beat Georgetown 64-61. Thankfully, it is only February, because if Georgetown lost a game like this in the NCAA Tournament, I'm not sure I'd get out of bed for a week.

Georgetown had PLENTY of opportunities to win this game, but they weren't ready to do so. Henry Sims hurt us down the stretch, not converting layups and getting blocked on the Hoyas final possession in regulation. Otto Porter was the exact opposite, showing people across the country what we've seen all year - this kid is special, and will be special for a long time. Porter had 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Jason Clark had an enormous 13 points, including two ridiculous three-pointers late in the second half.

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Georgetown basketball vs. South Florida: Hoyas’ defense stifles Bulls - The Washington Post
The Hoyas hold South Florida scoreless for nearly 11 minutes in the first half and shots start to fall in the second half.

Hoya Prospectus: Recap: Georgetown 75, USF 45
That's what made the first half so troublesome from the perspective of a Hoyas' fan - sure Georgetown lead by eight points at the break, but the Hoyas' inability to make shots was turning what should have been a laugher into a potential nightmare game before Georgetown headed up to Syracuse.

USF-Georgetown Haiku - Voodoo Five
I woke up for this? I'm really questioning why I woke up for this

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11AM games are terrible. But if you slept through the first half, both Georgetown and South Florida conspired to make sure you didn't miss much. The Hoyas defense was again impenetrable in the first half, but their offensive futility rivaled South Florida's, as the Hoyas only took a 23-15 points lead into half despite holding USF scoreless for 10 straight minutes.

The second half was an entirely different game as the Hoyas turned in one of their better halves of the season -- rolling USF 52-30 as if they were a low D1 competition. With Syracuse awaiting on Wednesday, it was pleasant to see Aaron Bowen and John Caprio get extended minutes as the Hoyas cruised to a 75-45 victory -- the type of score you expect out of a top 15 team. We were even treated to Bowen's specialty dunk: the flashy exclamation point (!) dunk of questionable class in the final seconds of a blowout.

Welcome back, Markel, and building delusion after the jump!

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After an uninspiring January, Georgetown regained its form in the biggest home game of the year to date, beating the UConn Huskies handily by a score of 58-44. It wasn't a flawless game by any means, as the Hoyas stumbled out of the gate and UConn clearly played miles below its potential. However, it was a satisfying game that verified Georgetown's top 15 ranking in the polls. The Hoyas swarming team defense allowed them to creep into the lead late in the 1st half, Hollis Thompson caught fire to extend it to double digits in the 2nd, and Henry Sims all but ended the game with a ferocious dunk over Jeremy Lamb at the five and a half minute mark. In between, it's worth noting the brief but electrifying performance by freshman Mikael Hopkins.

UConn was dominant for almost exactly four and half minutes tonight -- to open the game. Scoring on six of its first seven possessions, Andre Drummond was out-muscling Sims and throwing down uncontested dunks. All those who voted to stand with Nate Lubick in yesterday's poll must have groaned as he turned over the ball on the very first possession on his patented almost-an-great-pass-but-just-a-second-too-late move and was promptly taken out at the 17:30 mark with the Hoyas down 9-3.

But the defense kicked in. Over the next seventeen and half minutes, Georgetown allowed only 12 points and took a commanding 31-21 lead into the half as the offense started to show signs of life. In particular, Hollis Thompson started to heat up, scoring 10 points in the last nine minutes, putting back a few three balls.

And it was obvious the JT3 made it a priority to get Hollis Thompson the ball. THANK GOD.

More Hollywood, Hopkins and others after the jump

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A long week after a narrow victory over Rutgers, the Georgetown Hoyas suffered their worst loss of the season to a Pittsburgh team who entered the game 1-7 in league play... all while wearing pink shoes for breast cancer awareness. The pink shoes continued a familiar trend of alternative footwear being correlated with poor performances-- as did the Hoyas loss immediately upon reaching the top ten, staple of the last several years.

The Hoyas once again came out dreadful on offense in the first half, needing a late second half run to score a meager 22 points. The only sign of life was from Otto Porter, who netted 9 points in the half despite a number of mid-range jumpers rimming out. The difference, however, between other poor shooting games this season was that the defense would equally hapless: the Georgetown zone was getting torched as Pitt racked up uncontested lay-ups and dunks for Talib Zanna and Nasir Robinson as the deficit reached as much as 17.

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Newsflash time - this freshman class is special. Not sure if you folks knew that. Otto Porter scored the last 6 points for Georgetown, as the Hoyas narrowly escaped Rutgers 52-50 after being down 4 points with less than 2 minutes to play. The Hoyas played Porter and fellow freshmen Jabril Trawick and Greg Whittington for the majority of the second half, with the young fellas leading us to victory. Porter was the late game hero, but Whittington's 7 straight points after Rutgers went up 38-31 singlehandedly saved the game. Trawick was unbelievable on defense, spending his time guarding 5'9" Myles Mack and completely taking him out of the game.

The freshmen got help from seniors Henry Sims and Jason Clark as well. Sims had his first double double of the year, scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Clark played excellent defense on Eli Carter throughout the game and added 11 points, 8 of which came from the free throw line.

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Now that's how you ring in your 22nd birthday. While us mere mortals tend to accomplish nothing the day after our 22nd birthday, Jason Clark dropped a career high 31 points to lead Georgetown to a 83-75 WIN over DePaul tonight. The senior guard scored 31 points on an Austin Freeman-esque 14 shots, while acting as the primary ballhandler with Markel Starks unable to go tonight for yet to be discovered reasons. Clark's partner-in-crime, Henry Sims, scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds before fouling out with 3 minutes to go. Hollis Thompson scored 14 points as well, as Georgetown's top 3 scorers contributed 61 of 83 points.

With this victory, the Hoyas now move to 15-3 overall and 5-2 in Big East play with a game at the Verizon Center against Rutgers on Saturday. After losing games to West Virginia and Cincinnati, the Hoyas have regained their composure, winning consecutive road games in the rugged Big East.

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Now that's the Georgetown team we are accustomed to seeing. Georgetown beat St. John's yesterday 69-49 at the World's Most Famous Arena. Hollis Thompson paced the Hoyas with 20 second half points. Jason Clark had a stellar game as well, with 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. Two of the vaunted freshmen were sensational. Otto Porter had a double-double, with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Greg Whittington chipped in with 8 points and 8 rebounds as well.

For Georgetown, yesterday's game was a game of runs. They found themselves down 13-5 to start the game, then promptly ripped off an 18-2 run. In the second half, the Johnnies cut it to 48-45 with 6:30 left in the game. From there Georgetown closed with a 21-4 run to seal the victory.

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