Georgetown showed the ill effects of a week off Saturday, digging a 17-point hole from which it couldn’t get out, eventually falling against Pittsburgh, 72-60. The Hoyas sleep walked through much of the first half, sputtering on offense and not getting back on defense. While the deficit eventually was narrowed to five, the blue and gray committed too may errors, largely in the form of poor defensive rotations and forced shots on offense, to overtake a renewed Pittsburgh team.

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Georgetown: 60, Pittsburgh: 72

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The Georgetown Hoyas lost in disappointing fashion to Pittsburgh 72-60 at the Petersen Events Center. Georgetown never led in the contest and allowed their opponents to shoot over 50% from the field on the day. Nasir Robinson and Lamar Patterson combined to score 41 points on 15-17 shooting for the Panthers. Freshman reserve Otto Porter led the Hoyas with 14 points and six rebounds in the losing effort.
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In our last Pregame Predictions, we asked you to guess what Georgetown’s free throw percentage would be against Rutgers. The Hoyas were 25-36, 69.4%, from the line against the Scarlet Knights, and Georgetown needed every one of those points to eke out a 52-50 win. Roy 55 was the closest with his guess of 70, giving him his first win of the year.

Georgetown’s next opponent is Pittsburgh, who started the Big East season 0-7 before finally picking up a conference win Wednesday against Providence. The Hoyas would like to make sure the Panthers don’t start a winning streak at their expense, but, to ensure that, Georgetown must shoot the ball significantly better than it did against Rutgers.

What will Georgetown’s field goal percentage be?

While the Panthers may be having a down year, they will still bring intensity on the defensive end, so we will say the Hoyas will shoot 44% from the field, an improvement for sure, but not a lights out performance against a historically tough defensive team. Let us know what you think in the comments.

• The new rankings were released yesterday, and Georgetown (with wins over DePaul and Rutgers this week) moved up to #9 in the AP Top 25 and #10 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll.
• Syracuse had a two-game road trip this weekend, and sophomore Fab Melo did not make the trip with the team, supposedly for academic reasons. The Orange lost their first game of the season on Saturday, falling to Notre Dame, 58-67. As a result, Syracuse dropped out of the #1 spot and fell to #3 according to the AP and #4 according to the coaches. They’ve already gotten back in the win column with a victory over Cincinnati last night.
• The Big East announced its weekly honors yesterday, and Jason Clark was named to the Big East Honor Roll for his performances against DePaul and Rutgers. He had a career-high 31 points against DePaul, and averaged 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1.5 assists over the two games. Villanova took home the two big awards this week with Maalik Wayns named Big East Player of the Week and Jayvaughn Pinkston Big East Rookie of the Week.

Teams

Georgetown:
From the opening tip, it looked as though Georgetown did not have it’s A-game. Players were missing wide open shots, and the motion offense too often was not moving. The team made only three shots in the first half en route to its the worst shooting game of the year, 29.3% from the field.

The defense was solid, which was crucial, and the team was 70% from the free throw line, and in a game when the Hoyas shot 36 free throws, that made the difference. In the end, the Hoyas should try to put this game behind them and just be grateful that they were able to get a win when performing so poorly offensively. Hopefully, this performance was an anomaly, and the team can forget this game and move forward.

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Georgetown overcame its worst shooting stretch of the season Saturday, combining defensive discipline and clutch free-throw shooting to eke out a 52-50 win over Rutgers. The Hoyas trailed for nearly the entire game, leading just three times for a combined one and a half minutes. But it was the last lead, brought about by six straight points by freshman Otto Porter, that gave Georgetown the decisive advantage.

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Georgetown pulled out a close victory over Rutgers Saturday afternoon, and after the game, Coach Thompson talked to the press about the ugly win alongside Jason Clark, Henry Sims, Otto Porter, and Greg Whittingon:

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The Hoyas survived one of their worst offensive performances of the season in an ugly 52-50 win over Rutgers. Georgetown shot 29.3% from the field, but was 25-36 from the free through stripe, including the two free throws from Otto Porter to give the Hoyas the lead with eight seconds to play. Eli Carter for Rutgers had 14 points to lead all scorers while Henry Sims led the Hoyas with 12 points and 10 rebounds, his first career double-double.

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