The Georgetown men's 69-34 victory over the Citadel last night won't be remembered for much more than being the first victory of Coach John Thompson III's tenure at the university. The Hoyas thoroughly dominated the Bulldogs in front of 4,989 at MCI Center, holding the visitors to just 23.3 percent shooting.
Junior forward Brandon Bowman had 23 points and 13 rebounds; with 7 minutes 10 seconds left in the game, he had scored as many points as the Bulldogs (23). Junior guard Ashanti Cook added 14 points for Georgetown, which evened its record at 1-1. Junior guard Kevin Hammack (North County) led the Citadel (1-2) with 14 points.
Georgetown's Ashanti Cook goes to the basket against The Citadel's Aaron Xia.
(Nick Wass - AP)
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The Hoyas, who had lost their past 10 games dating from last season, learned an important lesson: "That winning is good," Thompson said. "It feels good. It's still the same process. We hopefully have to be better next week than we are now. Winning is good. Now we have to get ourselves in the mind-set of how we put ourselves in this position, regardless of the score."
Georgetown's three most experienced players -- returning starters Bowman, Cook and Darrel Owens -- combined to shoot only 20.8 percent in Monday's loss to Temple, and afterward Bowman vowed that he and his fellow veterans would perform better the next time out. They certainly did, shooting 57.1 percent on a combined 16-of-28 shooting. As a team, the Hoyas made 23 of 53 shots (43.4 percent).
Bowman scored 16 points in the first half and managed to outscore the entire Bulldog team in the first 20 minutes. Cook made his first three three-point attempts, finishing 4 of 7 from beyond the arc. Owens had eight points.
"The amount of shooting that the whole team has been doing, you have no choice but to get better, to make shots," said Bowman, who made 5 of 10 three-point shots and 8 of 14 field goals. "I feel a lot more comfortable; I've got more confidence further out. I don't look at the three-point line any more, I just shoot it."
Five minutes into the game, Georgetown had an 18-2 lead and the Hoyas were shooting 70 percent (7 for 10). The Citadel managed to take only four shots and missed them all. By the time the Bulldogs made their first field goal -- six minutes into the game -- the Hoyas had made five three-pointers and led 21-4.
Very little went wrong for the Hoyas in the first half. With nine minutes left until halftime, guard Jonathan Wallace stole the ball (one of nine Georgetown steals) and lobbed a pass ahead to fellow freshman Jeff Green. The Northwestern All-Met -- who in just two games has already proved to be one of the most athletic and explosive Hoyas -- went in for a one-handed dunk, but put the ball onto the front of the rim. No problem; senior RaMell Ross was there to put in the rebound.
Georgetown led 36-15 at halftime. The Citadel had more than twice as many turnovers (seven) as field goals (three) and shot only 15.8 percent (3 for 19) in the first 20 minutes.
The only suspense in the second half was whether the Bulldogs would make more than 10 field goals (they made 10) and shoot better than 20 percent for the game (they did), and whether the Hoyas would break the team record for three-point field goals in a game (12, set in two different games in 1996). Georgetown made six of its first nine shots from beyond the arc and was 7 of 16 at halftime.
Owens tied the record with a shot from the left corner with 4 minutes 18 seconds left, but the Hoyas didn't make another three-pointer the rest of the way.
