Ewing Gives Georgetown a Lift

The Georgetown Hoyas know that they can rely on senior reserve forward Patrick Ewing Jr. for a pick-me-up, emotional or otherwise, whenever they need one. In the second half of their 73-61 victory over Seton Hall yesterday afternoon, they definitely needed one. The sixth-ranked Hoyas were having a difficult time shaking the scrappy Pirates, and their top three ballhandlers were each saddled with four fouls.

"Coach said, 'I need you,' " according to Ewing. "He asked me: 'Are you tired? Because I need that energy today.' He was like: 'You need to be more vocal and you need to do some things on the floor and make something happen. We got to pull this game out.' "

Ewing did just that, engineering a decisive 11-2 run down the stretch that helped the Hoyas win their fifth straight game, in front of 14,528 inside Verizon Center. Georgetown (18-2, 8-1 Big East) is off to its best start in conference play since the 1988-89 season.

"From what I've seen so far this year in the Big East, they're [the] best team in the league -- I'm not going to say by far, but without question," said Seton Hall Coach Bobby Gonzalez, whose team has also faced Connecticut, No. 17 Marquette, No. 18 Pittsburgh and Louisville this season. "They're the elite team in this conference, in my opinion."

Seton Hall (15-7, 5-4) made the Hoyas work, though. The Pirates, who were riding a five-game winning streak, are certainly one of the Big East's most fearless teams, considering the way they attack on defense and throw up shots. Seton Hall's full-court pressure bothered Georgetown, particularly in a careless first half, and the Hoyas committed a season-high 21 turnovers (15 of which were steals).

Gonzalez knew his team couldn't compete with the bigger Hoyas inside; he said that comparing his three centers, who combined for three points and five rebounds, with Georgetown's tandem of 7-foot-2 senior Roy Hibbert (16 points, nine rebounds) and 6-9 sophomore Vernon Macklin (five points, seven rebounds) was like "talking about apples and oranges . . . it's just a different level of player."

But Gonzalez thought his team could exploit the Hoyas' free throw shooting (63.8 percent on the season), transition defense and defensive rebounding. The Pirates couldn't.

Georgetown made 25 of 31 free throws (80.6 percent); junior guard Jessie Sapp (17 points) was 10 of 12 from the line. The Hoyas did a better job of quickly getting back on defense in the second half than they did in the first 20 minutes. And Georgetown limited the Pirates to just five offensive rebounds, while building an overall 49-21 rebounding edge. The Hoyas' season-high 16 offensive boards led to 19 points.

"They didn't make many mistakes today," Gonzalez said. "There wasn't many cracks in the door for us to get through to get a win."

During a 60-second span early in the second half, Georgetown guards Sapp, Jonathan Wallace and Jeremiah Rivers each picked up his fourth personal foul. The one player who might have helped in that situation -- freshman Chris Wright -- was on the bench in a suit, out because of a foot injury.

Ewing was the one who picked up Georgetown. He made good decisions against the Pirates' press, pulling the ball out when the Hoyas needed to run some time off the clock and attacking when the opportunity arose. His cross-court alley-oop pass to freshman Austin Freeman gave Georgetown a 55-46 lead with 5 minutes 11 seconds to play, starting an 11-2 run in which Ewing had a hand in every basket.

He tapped in a missed shot, blew by the defense for a dunk, scored on another drive and slung a bounce pass to Wallace for a layup and foul. Ewing also drew a charge on the defensive end -- doing a little shimmy afterward -- and in the final minute, as he stood at the foul line tying the drawstring on his shorts, he had the nerve to lightly kick the ball back to the official because he wasn't ready.

"I couldn't really do much with my hands," explained Ewing, "or my pants would've fell down."

The official just smiled and returned the ball to Ewing once his shorts were secure. It was that kind of afternoon for Ewing, who was 4 for 4 from the field and 7 for 8 from the line.

"I was feeling it, and they kept feeding me the ball in positions where I could do something," Ewing said. "We were just out there having fun. Nothing out of the ordinary, just doing what we do."

Hoyas Note: Sophomore forward DaJuan Summers showed few ill-effects from the sprained left ankle that caused him to miss Wednesday's game; he started, played 22 minutes and recorded eight points and six rebounds.