Georgetown led for nearly the entire first half, dominating the boards while staying just ahead of the Orange. Freshman Otto Porter, who would finish with 14 points and 13 rebounds, led the charge to the glass, grabbing nine first-half misses. The Hoyas were no great shakes from the field, shooting below 40 percent for the half, but managed a couple of timely threes from Hollis Thompson and just enough ball movement to score on the Orange zone. On the other end of the floor, the Hoyas’ zone bottled up the Orange, save for a couple of Joseph threes, helping the visitors to carry a 31-27 lead into half-time.

Syracuse came out of the break with eight straight points to wrest the lead from the Hoyas. A sloppy turnover and missed shot both led to easy transition points, which Georgetown had limited up to that point. Syracuse’s run culminated with a Brandon Triche three that brought the 27,000 plus Orange-clad fans to their feet. Seniors Jason Clark and Henry Sims each had picked up their third fouls, making the Hoyas’ prospects grim.

Faced with veteran foul trouble, JTIII turned to a line-up of Hollis and the four freshmen. As they had so many times before, the first years came through on the defensive end, stanching the blood-letting while scoring just enough to tighten the margin back up. The game was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way, with each team taking one-basket leads that were just as quickly equalized. But Georgetown struggled to keep up, as Sims and Mikael Hopkins, the Hoyas’ big men, missed a series of chip shots near the rim, finishing 2 of 20 between them from the floor. While some of the shots looked make-able, many of the misses could be chalked up to Syracuse’s stout interior defense which, led by massive center Fab Melo, boasts the best block rate in the Big East. Having contained the Hoyas on offense, Syracuse rebuilt its advantage, which swelled to six thanks to yet another three by Joseph with 4:37 remaining

Just when Georgetown looked to be fading into the night, though, Clark hit back-to-back threes from ten or more feet beyond the arc. Reinvigorated on offense, the Hoyas locked down on defense, holding the Orange to just a single free throw over the last four minutes. In part, the Hoyas were aided by Orange guard Dion Waiters’s decision to play hero ball, as the sophomore launched jumper after ill-advised jumper. But Georgetown’s stingy defense also ruled out other options, clogging the lane and swarming the perimeter. Clark’s second bomb pulled the Hoyas within one, and an ill-advised foul with a minute remaining sent Greg Whittington to the line with just one minute remaining. The freshman made one of two to tie the game; each team missed opportunities to win in the final minute, including a frustrating possession in which Sims looked off a wide open Thompson on the perimeter.

A see-saw extra session ensued, with each team gaining, then relinquishing, a two-point lead. With less than a minute to play, Syracuse had the ball with a chance to break a 61-all tie. Once again, the Orange found Joseph free on the wing, and once again, the senior converted from three, his sixth trey of the evening with barely 20 seconds remaining in the extra session. A Georgetown timeout and a frustrating sequence ensued, in which Thompson tried to check into the game, but too late, leaving the Hoyas without their best perimeter marksman on a critical possession. Left without an additional option, Clark was bottled up and turned the ball over, ending the Hoyas’ chances.

The final minute was a disheartening end to an extremely encouraging evening that validated the Hoyas’ progress throughout the season. Whatever the struggles on each end of the floor, the Hoyas proved that they could shut down the Orange offense, which until last night had averaged more than 78 points per game. Porter once again proved his merit on a big stage, notching a double-double, while the rest of the Hoya freshmen seemed unfazed by the rabid opposing crowd. Clark and Thompson each played moderately well against the swarming Orange zone, with Hollis in particular showing full-court effort en route to his own 10 point, 10 rebound double-double.

Georgetown takes these positives into a five-game stretch in which the Hoyas are likely to be favored in each contest: Sunday’s home game against St. John’s; road trips to Providence and Seton Hall; and a pair of home games, against Villanova and Notre Dame. Each game will present its own challenges, but if the Hoyas bring the same defensive tenacity and composure against those foes that brought them within a free throw of being the first team to win at the Carrier Dome, they should emerge victorious. For now, the sting of Wednesday’s loss lingers, but another game awaits. Hoya Saxa.

For the second straight game, Georgetown held its opponent without a field goal for ten-plus minutes, keeping South Florida scoreless from five minutes after the tip until barely four minutes remained in the first half. The Hoyas were aided in their defensive efforts by the Bulls themselves, who committed numerous and egregious turnovers (at one point, five straight USF possessions ended in turnovers), missed free throws and lay-ups, and generally shot themselves in the foot offensively. But Georgetown’s defense also limited perimeter looks, rotated crisply, and held its own on the boards.

Initially, the offense wasn’t much to speak of, shooting just 35 percent for the first half and managing just three free throws over a nine-plus minute stretch. But that all changed after the half, when the Hoyas rattled off a 16-4 run to open the half, then scored on 14 straight possessions to end any thought of a South Florida comeback. Some of the new-found offensive production was the result of better ball movement, as Sims, Otto Porter (12 points, 4 assists), and Jason Clark (11 points, 2 assists) all picked up nifty assists. But the onslaught also was fueled simply by hot shooting, as seemingly ill-chosen long two-pointers and one-on-one forays alike led to baskets. Regardless, the jump in production, after recent bouts of offensive ineptitude, was plenty welcome.

In all, the win, its sixth holding a major-conference opponent under 60 points after four such victories last year, was further proof that Georgetown can win games with its defense. For all of Sims’s passing virtuosity, the absence of a true play-maker will continue to cause offensive lapses, but many fans exasperated by frequent defensive indifference in years past are willing to be patient with offensive difficulties. Saturday’s victory also runs Georgetown’s conference mark to 8-3 which, combined with Notre Dame’s win over Marquette, puts those three teams in a three-way tie (in the loss-column) for second place. The Hoyas’ position will be challenged Wednesday, when Georgetown travels to Syracuse to face the streaking Orange. The Hoyas will enter that game as underdogs, but, as they proved last year in the Carrier Dome, anything can happen.

Make no mistake: this was not the same Pitt team that lost its first seven Big East games. Panther point guard Tray Woodall returned before Wednesday’s win over Providence, revitalizing a downtrodden team. Saturday, Woodall generated a number of easy opportunities for his teammates, finishing with 10 assists. Several of those helpers came as fellow Panthers slipped screens and otherwise exploited a Georgetown defense that switches on picks. Particular beneficiaries were Nasir Robinson and Lamar Patterson, who combined to shoot 15 of 17 from the field to finish with 39 points.

Still, Georgetown was as bad as Pitt was good. The missed defensive rotations that led to so many easy Panther baskets were largely because of slow feet and poor communication by the Hoya defense. And the offense was little better: tentative cuts and poor ball movement helped hold the Hoyas to just 11 points in the first 15-plus minutes. Even the baskets the Hoyas could manage were outside the flow of the offense, and free throws again were an issue, as Georgetown finished just 7 of 12 from the line. Before Georgetown could right the ship, the deficit was a nigh-insurmountable 28-11.

Then, the Hoyas started clicking. Improved defense held the Panthers to just 5 points over as many minutes, while three-pointers from Otto Porter and Greg Whittington fueled an offensive spurt that narrowed the Pitt advantage to 11 at the half. (Had the old bugaboo – foul shots – not bitten Georgetown again in the last minute, when Porter missed the front end of a one-and-one, the lead might have been single digits.)

Georgetown came out of the break on the same trajectory as it closed the first half. Henry Sims – sluggish, silent, and ineffective in the first half – took over the post, scoring all 10 of his points after intermission and finding open teammates for suddenly easy baskets. And Jason Clark, who had scored just two points in the first half, scored twice off the bounce to pull the Hoyas within just five, a number that they matched on a Sims jump hook on the next possession.

But the errors were too many the rest of the way. For every stout defensive possession that resulted in a forced shot or 35-second violation, there was a slow-footed rotation that left Patterson or Robinson open under the hoop. On offense, a couple of forced jumpers frittered away possessions the Hoyas could scarcely afford to waste. Although Porter was excellent, leading the team with 14 points and 6 rebounds, the other offensive options, and the defensive stops, were too few. Georgetown would never again get closer than six.

The Hoyas’ offensive droughts have become something of a theme over recent weeks, whether in the closing minutes against Cincinnati, the entire first half against Rutgers, or the opening fifteen or so minutes against Pitt Saturday. Georgetown is even more susceptible to bouts of offensive ineptitude when one or more of its upperclassmen struggle. Saturday, the veteran in question was Hollis Thompson who, despite scoring 11 points, struggled for the second straight game, going scoreless between the Hoyas’ opening bucket and a largely meaningless eight-point flourish in the final minute.

While Georgetown (barely) withstood long scoreless stretches against Rutgers thanks to rugged defense of its own, the Hoyas could not contain a Pitt offense that, whatever the struggles of the team as a whole, remains highly efficient, and shot 52 percent from the field Saturday. Wednesday, the Hoyas will have a similarly small margin for error when they host the defending national champion UConn Huskies.

It was tough sledding from the get-go for the Hoyas, who made just one field goal in the first six minutes, and just two in the first ten, all while falling behind 13-7. Rutgers brought defensive identity from the opening tip, denying Georgetown on the perimeter, and fishing out the ball from the post. The Hoyas, unable to find the open looks to which they were accustomed, resorted to out-of-rhythm hoists that inevitably bricked. Things didn’t get much better as the half wore on, as Porter’s jumper with 9:39 remaining was the Hoyas’ third and last field goal of the half. Still, Georgetown stayed in it, effectively mixing zone and man defenses to stifle the Scarlet Knight offense. The Hoyas erased a six-point Rutgers lead and even took the lead on two Nate Lubick free throws with 4:25 remaining.

Foul shots were the theme of the afternoon, as the flip side of the Scarlet Knights’ defensive tenacity was their relentless fouling. The Hoyas were sent to the line for 18 first-half free throws and, in a welcome recovery from their recent woes, made 14. On the day, Georgetown shot 36 free-throws, making 25 (both second this season only to the Hoyas’ 29-of-42 performance against Howard). Unfortunately, Lubick’s makes were Georgetown’s last points of the half, and a two-point Hoya lead became a five-point disadvantage by the half.

While the Hoyas’ offensive struggles continued into the second half, Rutgers never pulled away, building a lead that never stretched past seven. Georgetown, for all its shooting woes, actually played a pretty good game otherwise. A Hoya team that has struggled with turnovers recently committed 14 on Saturday–a number that, while not exactly stingy, was good enough against a sticky-fingered Rutgers defense. And Georgetown continued its recent dominance on the boards, nabbing four more offensive rebounds than Rutgers (even though the Scarlet Knights missed four more shots). Finally, the Hoyas played pretty good defense themselves, holding Rutgers under 38 percent from the field, and to a similarly low number from two. As has been the case several times this season, the Hoya freshmen receive much of the credit for the defensive performance, as Porter, Greg Whittington (7 points, 5 rebounds) and Jabril Trawick (2 points, 2 assists) each brought defensive grit, particularly in the second half.

Tough defense and a brief spout of offensive competence finally got the Hoyas back in the game, tying it at 38 midway through the second half. Ties followed at 40 and 42, followed–at last!–by a Hoya lead, 44-42. Opportunity no sooner appeared than it seemed to slip away, thanks to renewed offensive ineptitude. The Hoyas managed just a point for more than four minutes, while Rutgers rebuilt a five-point lead with barely two minutes to play.

But in a game of shifting fortunes, the pendulum swung once more. The Hoyas locked down on defense and found yet another hero in a season full of them. After a Henry Sims free throw (team highs with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks) made the deficit four, Georgetown got three straight stout defensive stops. Each time, the Hoyas gave the ball to Porter. Lubick stole the ball then arced a beautiful full-court pass to a streaking Porter, who laid the ball in to trim the difference to two. After Jason Clark (11 points, 5 rebounds) drew an offensive foul, Porter hit a mid-range jumper to even the game with barely a minute to play. A perfect defensive possession resulted in a desperation Rutgers three, giving the Hoyas the unlikely chance to win, which Porter converted from the line with eight seconds remaining.

This win, like the one over Providence on New Year’s Eve, is sort of a Rorschach test for the fan’s feelings about the Hoyas. The optimist will assert that the Hoyas, in seasons past a strong offensive team that struggled when their shots weren’t falling, have found new ways to win. To be sure, there’s support for this view. As mentioned above, the Hoyas put in a strong performance on defense and on the boards, weaknesses in seasons gone by. And Georgetown has now won three games in which it has failed to score sixty points (Providence and Alabama being the two others), a feat which it accomplished not at all last year and just once the season before.

Of course, there’s ample material for the pessimist as well. The offensive droughts were excruciating, an echo of struggles throughout this season. With Markel Starks (three points) struggling recently, it’s hard to shake the nagging feeling that the Hoyas are one scorer short. Saturday, that feeling was more than nagging, as the Hoyas shot just 3 of 24 in the first half and less than 30 percent for the game.

Whose view prevails remains to be seen. But Georgetown finished a three-game stretch against inferior but tricky teams: St. John’s with young offensive promise; DePaul with harried pressure; and Rutgers with sticky, grabbing defense. As they should have, the Hoyas won all three. Those wins look all the more essential when looking at the standings where, behind the hated Orange, there’s a logjam of five teams with two losses apiece.

Now, Georgetown enjoys a week before traveling to Pittsburgh. In the meantime, Hoya Saxa.

Clark led all scorers, hitting 11 of 14 shots, 5 of 7 from three, en route to a career-high 31 points. The senior guard re-found his outside stroke, which had eluded him throughout a 4-for-22 three-point slump over the past six games. But he also played to his strengths, slashing to the hoop and pushing the ball in transition. Clark also affected the game in other ways, assuming primary ball-handling duties in the absence of point guard Markel Starks (who was sidelined with a stomach bug), swiping four steals, and grabbing five rebounds.

And Clark wasn’t alone on the glass, as six Hoyas grabbed at least four rebounds over an undersized Blue Demon squad. Leading the charge to the boards was Otto Porter, who grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds, his fifth double-digit rebound game in just eighteen career appearances. Porter continued to show a nose for the ball, also racking up two steals and two blocks even as he struggled through a rough shooting night.

The Hoyas particularly thrived on the offensive boards, where more Hoya misses found their way into Hoya hands (17) than into those of the Blue Demons (15). Senior post Henry Sims generated the most second chances, grabbing four offensive rebounds and seven misses overall while also scoring 16 points.

It wasn’t all good news for Georgetown, which struggled to cope with DePaul’s frenetic pace. The Blue Demons forced 18 Hoya turnovers, most in their full-court press. While Porter gave the ball away a team-high five times, the miscues were fairly evenly distributed. Some of the mistakes were to be expected: the Blue Demons thrive on taking the ball away in the full-court press. What’s more, the Hoyas were without Starks, frequently Georgetown’s lead guard, making the DePaul pressure all the more daunting. Even so, Georgetown’s tendency to fork the ball over was troubling, made all the more so by DePaul’s ability to capitalize on those mistakes. Those mistakes allowed DePaul runs that kept the Hoyas from pulling away in a contest they led nearly wire to wire.

DePaul also managed to stay close because Georgetown could not hit free throws. Clark missed five of his nine tries, while Hollis Thompson (14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) bricked both of his. As a team, the Hoyas hit just 16 of their 28 free throws, continuing a five-game slump in which they have made just 61 percent of their free throws.

Even so, Georgetown put the game away. After DePaul rattled off eight straight points without the Hoyas advancing the ball past half-court, the lead stood at just 48-46, and the sparse Blue Demon crowd had come to its feet, cheering through the Hoya timeout. But a pair of offensive put-backs, one by Thompson and another by Greg Whittington (five rebounds, four points), sandwiched around a Clark fast-break lay-in, made the advantage eight. Georgetown was never really threatened again, stretching the lead to 14 before holding on for the win.

For those prone to complain about the state of Hoya hoops, games at DePaul are a sobering reminder of what could be. These contests are observed by a few thousand in a soulless facility, far closer to the airport than campus, where banners tout the achievements of minor league hockey and arena football squads. During a visiting team’s run, the loud clapping of a few opposing fans echoes, making the meager home crowd seem all the more so. On Tuesday, it was evident that the DePaul faithful, supporters of a team so long the laughingstock of the Big East, desperately want their team to matter again. For a while, the Blue Demons looked ready to satisfy that yearning, scoring in bunches and swarming with full-court pressure. But, whatever their errors throughout the game, the Hoyas got just enough offense from Clark and just enough work on the glass to keep DePaul at arm’s length.

The two-game, two-win road trip means the Hoyas held serve while five other Big East teams teams also have two conference losses. Now, the Hoyas return to their home court, where on Saturday they’ll face a young Rutgers squad that already has beaten a pair of top-10 teams at home while compiling a 3-3 conference mark. In the meantime, Hoya Saxa.

Georgetown started the game slowly, scoring just five points over the first eight minutes. The Hoyas settled for three-pointers, several from well beyond the stripe, as the Red Storm racked up transition baskets, building an eight-point lead. But just when pessimism was setting in, the Hoyas’ offense began to click. Jason Clark hit a three out of the timeout, then Henry Sims rattled off five straight points out of the post and short corner. The made baskets allowed Georgetown to set up its zone, which proved tremendously effective against a St. John’s squad that made nothing all day from deep. The Red Storm went scoreless for more than six minutes, and managed just six more points before the half. For its point, Georgetown shot just 31 percent from the field for the half, and so couldn’t pull away. Still, ten offensive rebounds gave the Hoyas enough extra possessions to take a 25-19 lead into intermission.

In the second half, the Hoyas cracked the St. John’s zone. Georgetown moved the ball more crisply, finding plenty of open looks by weak-side ball reversals. Those clean shots went down, as the Hoyas shot 55 percent from the field after the break. Hollis Thompson led the charge, scoring all 20 of his points in the second half, almost entirely from beyond the arc, where Hollywood hit five treys, and on the break, where he hit a pair of layups.

In addition to improved shooting, Georgetown’s second half offensive surge was fueled by a continued assault on the offensive glass, where the Hoyas gathered eight second-half extra possessions other the top of the Red Storm’s over-matched zone. In all, more Hoya misses were grabbed by the Hoyas themselves (18) than by St. John’s (15). Greg Whittington (8 points, 8 rebounds) and Otto Porter (13 points, 10 rebounds) were particularly aggressive on the glass, gathering six and five offensive rebounds, respectively.

Still, St. John’s hung around, as a pair of Red Storm free throws made the deficit just three with six minutes and change remaining. But then everything the Hoyas did well to that point coalesced. The defensive pressure continued, good ball movement led to easy baskets for whoever was open (five Hoyas scored in the closing kick), and the offensive glass continued to provide easy second chances. At the same time, Georgetown’s main foil, St. John’s freshman stud Moe Harkless (21 points, 10 rebounds), fouled out, leaving the Red Storm without a go-to offensive option. In the end, Georgetown turned a tight game into a seeming blowout, leaving Madison Square Garden with a road win, all the more crucial in the Big East, in which seven of the sixteen teams finished the weekend with two conference losses. The Hoyas will stay on the road, traveling to Chicago where on Tuesday they’ll face a DePaul squad on the rise. Hoya Saxa.

Despite their errors, the Hoyas led for much of the game, building a 59-53 lead with just under six minutes remaining. But then they just collapsed, failing to score another field goal until a meaningless last-second lay-up. They left points, possessions, and other opportunities on the floor in every way imaginable. Careless, timid, and half-hearted passes lead to pointless turnovers, 17 in all. Missed defensive assignments allowed Bearcat guards Sean Kilpatrick and Dion Dixon to shake free time and again for 27 and 22 points, respectively, belying the Hoyas’ supposed defensive improvement. And the Hoyas’ offensive woes and mental miscues down the stretch debunked any rumors about their clutch play.

There are two particularly unfortunate aspects of this debacle. The first is that it wasn’t all bad: Georgetown actually shot well for most of the game, making 59 percent overall despite the late-game slump. Jason Clark and Hollis Thompson shot a combined 11 of 13 from the floor, netting 14 points apiece, though each missed his last shot and was largely absent down the stretch. And Nate Lubick had a strong performance, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds, and establishing a nice high-low combination with Otto Porter that led to several baskets. Hot shooting from Georgetown’s two leading scorers combined with solid contributions from the young guys should lead to a win.

But the slip-ups were simply too many, bringing us to the second especially irritating detail: the team’s veterans were largely to blame for the late-game collapse. Seniors Clark and Henry Sims led the Hoyas in turnovers, committing nine between them, while Clark and, especially, Thompson simply disappeared with the game on the line. Also among those veterans facing criticism should be JTIII. The squad repeatedly looked out-of-sorts coming out of second-half timeouts, failing to execute any discernible play, including one in the last minute with the game on the line. Ultimately, an 11-2 stretch “run” by the Bearcats over nearly six minutes spelled doom for the Hoyas.

The Hoyas now have suffered back-to-back losses against teams that seem to thrive on making the game frustrating. The thrilling last-minute wins, miraculous comebacks, and winning streaks all seem to be a distant memory, rather than one of three days ago. At the very minimum, the shoe’s on the other foot. The flaws we all knew were lingering–the lack of a truly reliable veteran, the unproven depth–bore their heads over the past four halves. And the supposed virtues of youth, length, and confidence all seem a bit more tenuous. Morning, and looking forward to the next game (and, in the case of the players a few days of needed rest and practice beforehand) probably will bring calmer nerves, a bit more perspective, and maybe even a refreshed optimism. But for now, we’ll just lick our self-inflicted wounds.

Still, the margin was just two points at intermission, and three with less than ten minutes remaining. But the lead soon swelled to eleven as West Virginia kept the Hoyas out of sync, and gradually pulled away. While a late run spurred by Georgetown’s full-court press pulled the Hoyas within four, the Mountaineers iced the game at the free-throw line.

As usual, West Virginia was led by its two seniors. Forward Kevin Jones, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder on the season, notched 22 points and a game-high 16 rebounds. Georgetown held him relatively in check on the offensive boards, where he grabbed just three rebounds, two below his season average. But the Hoyas offered him plenty of bricks to pluck off the defensive boards, and he seized the opportunity. On offense, Jones did what he wanted to, using his wide 6’8? frame to score in the lane, mid-range, and even from three. Fellow senior Darryl “Truck” Bryant led all scorers with 25 points, 19 of which came in the second half.

Georgetown, for its part, had plenty of contributions from its upperclassmen. Hollis Thompson led all Hoyas with 20 points, while Jason Clark and Henry Sims added 10 apiece. Clark and Sims, though not enjoying their best days from the field, also contributed in other ways, with Clark picking up five steals and two blocks, and Sims gathering five rebounds and handing out six assists.

But, with Sims shooting just 3 of 10 from the field and Clark missing all 4 of this three-pointers, no other Hoya stepped up offensively. Nate Lubick had a pair of buckets but then fouled out in just 15 minutes of action, and Markel Starks and the four freshmen combined to shoot just 6 of 20 from the field. The Hoyas particularly struggled from the three-point line, where they made just 2 of 14 heaves.

West Virginia has vexed Georgetown in recent years, having won five straight against the Hoyas dating back to the 2008-09 season. The Hoyas struggle to adapt to the Mountaineers’ grinding, physical brand of ball. For brief stretches of each half Saturday, JTIII seemed to find the answer, employing a full-court pressure that forced the young West Virginia guards into several turnovers. But the veteran guard Bryant was more adept at handling the press, easily passing over and around the Hoyas’ attack. On offense, Georgetown seemed to mostly score on broken plays, as Clark and Thompson sought out their shots outside the typical offensive sets.

Of the eleven straight it rattled off, Georgetown won four by three points or fewer. Those thin margins, combined with the tough match-up against West Virginia and the hostile arena, finally caught up with the Hoyas Saturday. But the Hoyas have little time to navel-gaze after the loss, as they return to action Monday night against a talented if inconsistent Cincinnati team. A preview of that game follows tomorrow morning.

The first half was not a display of virtuosity for Georgetown. Marquette came out on fire, hitting seven of its first nine shots. While the Hoyas kept pace for a while, the Golden Eagles’ aggressive defense forced Georgetown into twelve first-half turnovers. Each team entered intermission having made about half of its shots, but the Hoyas’ carelessness meant that Marquette enjoyed several more possessions, which they used to amass a fourteen-point halftime lead.

The second half started little better: while Georgetown cut down on the offensive miscues, they still struggled to stop the Golden Eagles, who seemingly found, and hit, every open shot. Marquette guards Darius Johnson-Odom (4 three pointers; 18 points overall) and Todd Mayo (16 points including 3 3-pointers) in particular buried a few daggers in the Hoyas, with Mayo’s final trey making the advantage an embarrassing 56-39 with 13-plus minutes remaining.

But out of a timeout, the tide turned. Clark buried a three-pointer, the first of 10 points by the senior guard in an 18-6 Hoya run over the next six minutes, pulling Georgetown within five. As has been the case so many times this season, Hoya youth and length was critical: a line-up that at times included each of four freshmen locked down the Marquette offense, closing out on perimeter shooters and hawking the passing lanes. JTIII’s confidence in these freshmen, evident throughout much of the season, was never more clear than Wednesday night, when he put the quartet in when times were dire.

Porter was his usual, all-around excellent self, finishing with an impressive 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. Whittington was a shadow to Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder (17 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals), preventing Marquette’s leading scorers from getting any clean looks late in the game, while Trawick was as tough and irascible as ever, prying the ball away from one Marquette player while swatting another. As a result, the Golden Eagles went more than seven minutes without a field goal, allowing the Hoya rally to take hold. (Not to be forgotten, fourth frosh Mikael Hopkins helped spur the comeback offensively, scoring four points while dishing out for another basket.)

The rest of the offense was just as good during the home stretch: Sims, coming back in for Hopkins, was impeccable in the high post, feeding Porter and Clark for lay-ups, and driving the lane when given the opportunity. The senior center finished a near-perfect 5-of-6 from the field, and Thompson did one better, sinking 6 of his 7 jumpers, including four three-pointers. Georgetown took the lead twice, only to see Marquette tie the score anew. With the game tied at 70 and the clock winding down, the Hoyas turned to their upperclassmen for the final surge. Sims drove the lane then, having attracted the Marquette defense, dished to Thompson for the game-clinching three, a faint echo of his game-winner against Alabama a month ago.

Wednesday was perfect only from a dramatic standpoint. Georgetown committed sixteen turnovers, and left too many points at the free-throw line, where the Hoyas shot just 13 of 23. They also struggled on defense for the first twenty-odd minutes, yielding too many open looks to Golden Eagle shooters and struggling to keep up with Marquette in transition. All of those issues will need to be rectified if the Hoyas hope to win the teams’ March 3 rematch in Milwaukee.

That said, an eleven-game winning streak is not built on picture-perfect victories alone. Georgetown has shown over those eleven games that it can win fast, slow, pretty, and ugly. The Hoyas can win while making 60-plus percent of their shots, as they did Wednesday night, or just 30 percent, as they did against Providence on Saturday. Without further lapsing into a Seussism, the young Hoyas’ versatility is as impressive as it is reassuring to fans of a team that sometimes seemed one-dimensional in years past.

Georgetown returns to action Saturday, when it travels to Morgantown to take on West Virginia. Until then, Hoya Saxa.

Jason Clark led the Georgetown charge, such as it was, scoring 16 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, nabbing 3 steals, and dropping 1 assist. Otto Porter cleaned the glass, coming just shy of Wednesday’s career-high 14 rebounds with 12, also chipping in six points. Henry Sims was terrible from the field, making just 2 of 13 shots, but converted from the line, where he made 7 of 9, finishing with 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks. No other Hoya exceeded five points.

The arc of the game resembled the equally ho-hum win over Howard three weeks ago. As against the Bison, Georgetown started out well on defense, holding the Friars to just four points over the opening eleven-plus minutes. Providence was brutal on offense throughout the game, and in the first half in particular, going eight straight minutes without a point. Some of the Friars’ struggles can be credited to the Hoyas, whose 2-3 zone left Providence looking disorganized and listless. But Providence also contributed to its drought, hitting no shots except those aimed at its own feet. On offense, the Hoyas were moderately effective, racking up a whole 17 points while the Friars languished at 4. Each of the Hoyas chipped in offensively, with Nate Lubick, who made a pair of buckets and assisted on a third, impressing in particular.

Then it was Georgetown’s turn at ineptitude. Rather than trying to pressure the sure-handed Hoyas into turnovers, the Friars simply sagged off, clogging the lane against easy looks, and daring Georgetown to make an open jumper. While the Hoyas were all too willing to take open threes, the shots just weren’t falling. Jumpers were bricked, rattled, and missed in just about every way possible. While some Hoya looks were poorly chosen, the result of lazy offensive sets, others were wide open and simply errant.

Gradually, the Friars crept back into the game, tightening the deficit to eight by halftime. Somehow, the second half was worse than the first, as Georgetown made just three of its first eighteen looks after the half. The Friars were moderately better, eventually tying the score at 35 with 8 minutes remaining. A brief flurry moved the dial a bit, as Georgetown converted on three straight possessions and Providence answered with five straight points of its own, making the score 41-40 with 4:41 to play. An Otto Porter put-back made the margin three, but then, fittingly, the teams went scoreless for three minutes, with a Sims free throw and a Markel Starks runner pushing the lead to an insurmountable six with under a minute to play.

What and how much to take from this game is in the eye of the beholder. Pessimists will say that Providence has unlocked the Georgetown offense, exploiting suspect Hoya three-point shooting by denying looks in the lane. That interpretation would ignore the fact that Clark, Starks, and Hollis Thompson have all been lethal from deep at various points this season, and that the Hoyas shot just 16 percent from three on Saturday, well below their 38 percent average coming into the game. Optimists will argue, as Doris Burke claimed in the waning minutes, that Georgetown just comes up with big plays down the stretch. That’s also a bit shaky: aside from Thompson’s three at Alabama, it’s hard to think of too many such big plays this year, and they’ve shown a worrying tendency, at least in the Louisville and Alabama games, to lose sizable, late leads.

For now, let’s just settled on the easy answer: Georgetown survived an ugly afternoon, getting a conference win, which is always a good thing. The Hoyas return to action Wednesday, in a huge game against Marquette at the Verizon Center. Until then, Happy New Year, and Hoya Saxa.