Georgetown Defeats Mount St. Mary's 72-50

Otto Porter and Greg Whittington each scored 17 points as the Georgetown Hoyas improved to 4-1 on the young 2012-13 college basketball season with a 72-50 victory over the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers. The 22 point final margin doesn't remotely tell the story of this game, however, as it was relatively close throughout. The Hoyas led just 34-32 after a sloppy first half and held an 8-10 point bulge for the majority of the second half before pulling away in the game's final minutes.

The first half was, unfortunately, one that we have come to expect from the Hoyas in the JT3 era against a much weaker opponent. After the riveting showing in The Legends Classic against UCLA and Indiana, the Hoyas were sloppy with the ball on offense and late to make switches on defense, resulting in the Mount hitting nearly 50% (6-14) from three in the first half and keeping this game within reach. Despite owning a massive size advantage down low, the Hoyas were content to take shots from the perimeter which played right into The Mount's hands.

At halftime JT3 made some terrific adjustments on defense as the Hoyas shifted between man to man and the suddenly fearsome 2-3 Zone which frustrated the Mountaineers and forced a number of bad shots. The Mount shot a woeful 1-10 from three in the 2nd half, and with the threes no longer falling there wasn't much hope for Mt. St. Mary's to pull out a win. The Mount managed just 18 points in the 2nd half. On offense the Hoyas made a concerted effort to get the ball inside, with Mikael Hopkins getting off a number of good looks to match his career-high with 13 points and Nate Lubick putting together another workmanlike effort 8 points and 6 rebounds, 3 on the offensive glass.

One of the more frustrating aspects of this game was what we didn't get to see, as many Hoyas fans (and probably JT3) were looking forward to this game being out of reach early in the 2nd half so that Georgetown could get a look at what the end of the bench can do in game situations. However it wasn't until the game's final minute when the bench was emptied, giving Moses Ayegba, Stephen Domingo and yes, even John Caprio their first taste of game action. Depth continues to be an issue for Georgetown, as the bench contributed a whopping 2 points in this game on a bucket from Jabril Trawick. Freshman sensation D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, who made such a great first impression against Duquesne and Liberty, has vanished since.

With Tennessee in the Big East-SEC Challenge and Texas in the Jimmy V Classic up next, Georgetown won't have the luxury to come out flat like they did this afternoon. When the Hoyas were unranked like they were in The Legends Classic it was easy for them to sneak up on talented opponents. Come Monday, that will all change as the Hoyas will be ranked in the Top 25 for the first time this season.

Box Score.