Georgetown senior center Courtland Freeman was so dominant in an 89-58 victory over Howard before 4,412 at MCI Center yesterday that he kept scoring 10 minutes after the game ended.
Freeman set career-highs with 21 points and six blocked shots. His original postgame scoring total was 19 points; after the game, however, official scorers changed a basket mistakenly credited to another Hoya and gave it to Freeman.
It would have been a career high either way -- his previous high was 13 points. The six blocked shots were more than the team had managed since it had nine in an 83-36 win over Grambling in the first game of the season.
"We may have found ourselves a big man," Georgetown Coach Craig Esherick said. "He's been on the team all along, but hopefully this was a coming-out party. He blocked shots and rebounded and scored inside and forced people to foul him. This is the way we're hoping to see him play the rest of the season."
Said Freeman: "Coach talked to me earlier this week about how I need to use my presence more inside. I was shooting too many jump shots. . . . I don't know. It just happened for me today."
The Hoyas (8-0) are off to a fast start for the fourth straight season. They have begun 7-0, 9-1 and 16-0 in each of the past three seasons, respectively. Only once in that span, however, have they made the NCAA tournament.
Their chances this season would be greatly helped if Freeman continues to play well. He is the team's biggest player at 6 feet 9 and 228 pounds. Georgetown's game at The Citadel (3-5) on Monday is its last before it begins Big East play, against Rutgers on Jan. 3 at home.
"He was a monster today," Hoyas sophomore forward Brandon Bowman said. "His presence was felt all over the court. They had trouble getting shots off inside. . . . That is the inside presence we are going to need."
Junior forward Mac Wilkinson had 24 points for Howard (2-6); it was the most points an opponent has scored against Georgetown this season. However, Wilkinson had only three in the first half, and the Bison trailed 50-21 at halftime.
Wilkinson made a three-pointer that pulled Howard to 63-47 with 11 minutes 25 seconds to play. But Georgetown answered with a 15-2 run and took a 78-49 lead following a layup by sophomore Ashanti Cook with 6:13 to play.
Freeman was one of four Hoyas in double figures. Senior Gerald Riley had 17 points, Bowman had 16 and junior Darrel Owens had 14.
"Georgetown got the jump on us early," Howard Coach Frankie Allen said. "They got in a comfort zone, and it was pretty much over."
Howard had a rough day all around. Wilkinson shot 1 for 5 in the first half; four of those shots were jump shots from at least 16 feet, even though he is the team's tallest starter at 6-9.
Point guard Louis Ford went 1 for 7 in the first half; even though he is the shortest starter at 5-6, he took -- and missed -- five shots from inside the lane.
Junior Seye Aluko, a Paint Branch graduate and the Bison's third-leading scorer, left the game after he hit his head on the floor with 12 minutes left in the first half. He got three stitches, then came back into the game with 3:11 left in the half. He ended with 10 points.
Hoyas Notes: National security adviser Condoleezza Rice attended the game. It was the second straight season a member of President Bush's cabinet had done so; Secretary of State Colin Powell was at the Howard game last year.
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