Hoyas Find Pressure Points

Defense Is the Key as Georgetown Has Easy Time With Cincinnati: Georgetown 73, Cincinnati 53

What would be the best way to illustrate the dominating defensive performance put forth by 12th-ranked Georgetown in its 73-53 victory over Cincinnati yesterday at Verizon Center?

Perhaps it was the way 7-foot-2 senior Roy Hibbert moved around the lane, swatting away shots. Or maybe it was the way guards Jessie Sapp and Jeremiah Rivers took turns chasing Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati's leading scorer, all over the court, rarely leaving his side. Or the way the Hoyas worked together to contest so many shots.

Taken all together, it left a lasting impression on Bearcats Coach Mick Cronin.

"I'd say they're by far the best defensive team we've played all year," he said. "It's very, very hard to get an open shot, and then when we did get some open shots, we didn't even hit the rim a few times. But I think that's a byproduct of how hard you've got to work to get an open shot against their defense."

That effort helped keep the Hoyas (22-4, 12-3) atop the Big East standings. And it led to the most lopsided loss of the season for Cincinnati (13-13, 8-6), which has victories over the three conference teams that have beaten Georgetown (Louisville, Syracuse and Pittsburgh).

With their athleticism and discipline, the Hoyas routinely make it difficult for teams to score; they lead the country in field goal percentage defense and held Cincinnati to 36.4 percent (16 of 44). Georgetown's pressure on the perimeter and ability to quickly switch on screens prevented the Bearcats from getting to the hoop, and Cronin said afterward that his team didn't score a single post-up basket.

But the Hoyas also forced Cincinnati into 18 turnovers, of which 10 were steals -- the most they have had in a conference game this season. The Hoyas scored 27 points off of those turnovers, and often were able to push the ball.

"It just went with the flow of the game," said Sapp, who led the Hoyas with 16 points and four steals. "We got an opportunity to get transition points, and we took advantage of them."

Coach John Thompson III was pleased with the Hoyas' defense, outside of a four-minute stretch at the end of the first half in which their lead was whittled from 14 points to seven. In that span, the Bearcats made all four shots they attempted, and on back-to-back possessions, Vaughn broke free and made three-pointers.

Overall, however, the Hoyas did a good job defending the three-point shot (Cincinnati was 5 of 15). They paid particular attention to Vaughn (13 points), who is one of the league's top scorers and three-point shooters.

"We just wanted to be more aggressive on the ball," Sapp said. "We know the guy can shoot, so we just wanted to get over screens and contain him. Make sure we had a hand in his face all the time. We didn't want to give him any open looks."

Hibbert (12 points, five blocks) helped set the tone of the game. Five minutes in, he blocked three consecutive shots by three players on consecutive possessions. On the third one, he ran hard after a driving Rashad Bishop and knocked away the shot from behind. The Bearcats missed seven of their first eight shots and committed two shot-clock violations in the first seven minutes.

"I felt it's my natural job just to go ahead [and block shots]. I always say, no easy looks at the basket," said Hibbert, who has blocked 11 shots in his past two games. "I'm going to try to alter as many shots as I can. Make it hard for them to get layups."

The Hoyas made just 6 of 22 three-point attempts but still won by 20, their second-largest margin of victory in conference play.

"I think people have been unjustly saying negative things about their team, that they're maybe not living up to expectations, that they're not blowing people out," Cronin said. "They're playing in the Big East, they're playing in the deepest conference in the history of college basketball. It's a long year. You're not going to blow everybody out, you're not going to make every shot. It's amazing what expectations can do. Because they went to the Final Four last year, people expect them to be some juggernaut. . . . I'm just glad we don't play them again."