:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47784457/usa-today-8957849.0.jpg)
"I've lost a lot of night's sleep for a lot of different things as it relates to this young man but never about his offense." Coach John Thompson III on D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera
Senior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera rebounded after a subpar game over the weekend to score a game-high 30 points as Georgetown evened its record at 3-3 in a 68-49 win over Maryland Eastern Shore in front of a light crowd of 4,062 fans on Tuesday night at the Verizon Center. The Hoyas are now a ridiculous 54-0 against schools from the MEAC. I'd love to see that conference in March sometime.
Smith-Rivera made his first 3-pointer of the night and never looked back as the senior went from being Mr. Outside in the first half to Mr. Inside in the second.
"My teammates just supported me pretty much through all the games and I finally feel like the weight is off my shoulders a little bit," Smith-Rivera said after hitting 10-of-16 from the field just a few days after a 3-of-12 performance against Bryant.
Senior Bradley Hayes just missed his second double-double of the season with 11 points and nine rebounds while Tre Campbell returned to the court for the first time since Nov 17 to score seven points in 19 minutes.
Knockout punch: Unlike their in their upsetting loss to Radford, Georgetown used a 15-4 run to close the half to take a commanding 38-20 lead into the halftime break. Smith-Rivera hit three of his five 3-pointers during this run. All in all, Smith-Rivera finished the first half with 17 points thanks in large part to his hot shooting from deep - 5-of-7 from 3-point land.
Slow Starting: Georgetown got off to a slow start in the second half which prompted a timeout by JT3 after a Peak jumper. At the first media timeout JT3 inserted Trey Mourning into the lineup. JT3 seemed a bit frustrated on the sideline with Govan's turnovers so maybe he was trying something different there. Maybe it was the energy. At one point in the second half the Hoyas had as many turnovers as points - 10.
Chasing History: DSR's five first half 3-pointers put him on track to break the single game school mark of seven that he shares with both Mark Tillmon ('90) and Austin Freeman ('11). It wasn't to be as DSR went 0-of-3 from deep although he did drill one right after an off the ball foul was called against UMES. Oh what could have been.
History was set, well kinda, as DSR moved past Roy Hibbert ('08) on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,480 points. DSR is now 16th all-time and he's right on the heels of Gerald Riley ('04) for 15th place.
Cameron Continues to Surprise: Junior Reggie Cameron continues to impress. Cameron came into the game with 10 field goals on the season with nine of them being from deep. He switched things up by tying a career high with three two-point field goals against UMES. Cameron continues to keep his minutes even as Campbell and Paul White have returned.
Zone Issues: UMES coach Bobby Collins felt good about his team's zone performance against the Hoyas.
"They really didn't score in our zone, they scored in transition and they scored off our turnovers in the first half," said Collins. "In the second half, we really wanted to slow the game down with our zone and I thought our zone was very effective."
We saw a variety of players flash to the free throw against the zone but no one really took that shot. It will be interesting to see what happens against Syracuse because JT3 teams have done a lot of damage against the Orange from the spot - including that incredible performance by Chris Wright in the Dome in 2011.
Club 30: DSR had at least 30 points for the fourth time in his career and the first time since his sophomore season against St. John's. He's now tied with Freeman for the most 30 point games under JT3. All of the games have come at home with one coming at McDonough against WVU in the 2014 NIT.
Copeland: So a game after DSR struggled, Copland - Georgetown's leading scorer coming into the game at almost 15 points per game - went 0-of-3 in a scoreless 19 points. It was his first goose egg since the Eastern Washington game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season. Copeland had scored in double figures in each of the Hoyas first five games this season.