After Hoyas Win, Coach Pushes for More

Georgetown 66, Old Dominion 48

NORFOLK, Nov. 28 -- Shortly after fifth-ranked Georgetown's 66-48 victory over Old Dominion on Wednesday night, Coach John Thompson III was complimented on the efficiency of his team's offense. The Hoyas shot a season-high 52 percent, and nine players combined to produce 20 assists on 26 field goals.

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But Thompson chose to differ. He pointed to Georgetown's nine turnovers and said the Hoyas were "not fluid, not smooth by any stretch of the imagination." The offense, he vowed, is going to be much better in the coming weeks and months.

"It's early in the season, this is where we work on our offense," said junior guard Jessie Sapp, who had seven points and six assists. "I think we're farther along than we were last year. But we still have to work on a lot of things, to get our offense crisp to where we want it to be so we win can a lot more games."

Thompson agreed with Sapp's assessment but added that he doesn't think in terms of last season. Instead, he just looks at what this team has the potential of doing. Georgetown has plenty of options; nine Hoyas played at least 17 minutes and scored.

Senior center Roy Hibbert had his first double-double of the season (14 points, 10 rebounds), and freshman guard Austin Freeman, the All-Met Player of the Year last season while at DeMatha, scored 11 points off the bench. Sophomore forward Vernon Macklin, who grew up in nearby Portsmouth, had six points (all on dunks), two rebounds and one blocked shot.

Perhaps most encouraging, the Hoyas continued to maintain their double-digit lead in the second half as Thompson substituted players. Freshman Chris Wright (seven points) and sophomore Jeremiah Rivers ran the team for much of the second half, as Sapp and senior Jonathan Wallace (eight points) sat and watched.

"It's something we're working towards. I think we will get to the point where I don't think about this group relative to who's a starter, who's not a starter," Thompson said. "There's going to be very little drop-off up and down the board when we bring guys off the bench."

In front of a raucous sellout crowd of 8,424, Georgetown (4-0) handed the Monarchs (3-4) their first home loss of the season, and just their fifth loss at Ted Constant Convocation Center since the start of the 2004-05 season. It was a small measure of revenge for the Hoyas, who were upset by Old Dominion last season, 75-62, at McDonough Arena. That loss snapped a 23-game winning streak, which dated from 1982, inside the cozy on-campus gym.

"You don't like losing to teams, especially on your home court," said senior forward Patrick Ewing Jr., who had nine points, five rebounds and three assists. "And then you know the tradition of playing in McDonough -- they ruined something that was dear to our program. So just to come back in here and I guess get payback, it felt good to get the win."

In last year's upset, the Monarchs shot well (particularly from three-point range), took care of the ball and were balanced offensively. That wasn't the case on Wednesday. Old Dominion shot just 31.3 percent (3 of 15 from beyond the arc), and was careless with the ball in the second half as the Hoyas started to pull away. Forward Gerald Lee, a 6-foot-10 sophomore from Finland, was the Monarchs' lone offensive threat; he scored a career-high 24 points on 11-of-20 shooting.

Lee was especially effective in the first half, scoring 16 of the Monarchs' 23 points and grabbing seven offensive rebounds. During one two-minute stretch, he scored six straight points on an array of moves inside -- a soft shot from the baseline, a nice up-and-under and a putback off a missed layup -- to tie the score at 21.

But over the next eight minutes -- a span that included the end of the first half and the start of the second -- Georgetown went on a 20-3 run to take control of the game. Hibbert was instrumental in that stretch, either scoring inside or finding open players. A cutting Freeman got an emphatic dunk off of a Hibbert pass, and Wallace sank a three-pointer off of a kick-out.

Lee attempted just five shots in the second half, as he had to battle Ewing, Macklin and Hibbert at various times.

"We tried to limit his touches, be more physical with him and force him to get his touches off the block," Ewing said. "He's a great player. It's tough, but I feel like we did a good job with it."