Georgetown extended their winning streak to five games with their second three-point victory in three days, beating Louisville 62-59. Chris Wright led all scorers with 24 points, including a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line, while Terrence Jennings had 18 points for the Cardinals in the losing effort. The win improves Georgetown to 6-4 in Big East play, while Louisville was handed their third conference loss of the year.

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The Hoyas won another nailbiter, beating Louisville 62-59 at Verizon Center. After the win, here’s what Coach Thompson, Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, and Hollis “Hollywood” Thompson said to the press:

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Coach Pitino didn’t come into the media room to give his postgame interview, so unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to record him speak.

Hey everyone, Johnny here at Verizon Center 15 minutes before the tipoff between Georgetown and Louisville, two teams who moved up in the rankings today thanks to big wins on Saturday against Villanova and Connecticut respectively.

Lots of Louisville fans were spotted milling about Chinatown outside the arena, so expect there to be a fair number of people cheering for the wrong team tonight. Hopefully, they won’t have much to cheer about.

Here’s the info I have for you so far:
The starters are going to stick the same for the Hoyas – Clark, Wright, Freeman, Lubick, and Vaughn.
For the Cardinals, it’s gonna be Knowles, Siva, Chris Smith, Jennings, and Kuric Van Treese.

And the refs tonight are Ed Corbett, John Gaffney, and Karl Hess.

Check back for more updates and commentary throughout, and feel free to leave your own insights/questions below.

Georgetown displayed great poise, stout defense and efficient execution for 37 minutes Saturday, then hung on–despite miserable turnovers and the worst cut-away in ESPN history–to defeat #7/#8 Villanova, 69-66. The last minute was the most exciting of Georgetown basketball since at least Missouri, and left fans exhilarated, exhausted, and reaching for their stents. Ultimately, clutch free-throw shooting, timely press breaks, and one defensive stop were just enough to secure the Hoyas their signature conference win to date. The victory put Georgetown above .500 in conference for the first time this year and gave the Hoyas their first four-game conference winning streak since 2008.

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Teams

Georgetown:
The Hoyas gritted out a big win in a hostile environment to extend their winning streak to four games, beating Villanova 69-66. It was not the prettiest of performances, but Georgetown did enough down the stretch to preserve the victory.

Things started to look bleak for the Hoyas near the end of the game, as two costly turnovers due to the Villanova press allowed the Wildcats, and the crowd, back in the game. But, from then on out the Hoyas played nearly flawless basketball, scoring on every possession in the last two minutes and also not allowing the Wildcats’ most effective three point shooters an open look to tie the game on their final possession.

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• The Hoyas picked up two wins over the week, beating St. John’s at home on Wednesday, and then beating #8 Villanova in Philadelphia on Saturday.
• There were tons of losses in the Top 25 over the past week, and four of the top 5 teams in the country picked up a loss as #2 Pittsburgh lost to Notre Dame on Big Monday, #3 Duke lost to St. John’s yesterday in New York, #4 San Diego State lost their first game to Brigham Young on Wednesday, and #5 Connecticut fell to Louisville in double overtime on Saturday.
• Also, #8 Villanova and #9 Syracuse each lost twice over the week, and #9 Brigham Young, #11 Missouri, #12 Purdue, #13 Texas A&M, #16 Minnesota, #17 Wisconsin, #18 Washington, #19 Vanderbilt, #20 Illinois, #22 Florida State, #24 Florida, and #25 Michigan State all lost a game this week as well.
• #1 Ohio State is the only unbeaten team left in the country, and they narrowly escaped experiencing their first loss with a 58-57 win over Northwestern on Saturday.
• In the NBA, Jeff Green continues to do well with the Thunder, as he scored 19 points and hit the game-tying shot in the overtime win against Minnesota, had 13 and 10 against the Wizards, and then scored 23 in the loss to the Heat yesterday afternoon.
• Roy Hibbert scored 20 points for the first time since November, but followed up that performance against the Nets with a 2 point showing against Chicago . Expect big changes for the Pacers, though, as coach Jim O’Brien was fired and replaced with interim coach Frank Vogel.
• Greg Monroe is continuing to do well with the Pistons as he scored 15 points and grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds in a loss against the Knicks yesterday. DaJuan Summers played 12 minutes in that and scored four points.
• In the NBA Development League, Patrick Ewing, Jr. was traded from the Reno Big Horns to the Sioux Falls Skyforce on Tuesday. In his first games with the Skyforce, he scored 13 and grabbed 15 boards and then followed that up with a team leading 14 points in two losses to the Dakota Wizards.

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Julian Vaughn was the un-sung hero in the Hoyas’ win at Villanova.

Austin Freeman was great: he scored 30 points; he scored 10 of the Hoyas’ final 12 points and assisted on the other hoop; he made all his free throws; he carried the team down the stretch. I’ve seen some impressive individual performances over the last 30 years, and Freeman’s game versus Villanova was right up there with the all-time greats. Now, you don’t have to be a very careful observer to recognize that Freeman was the star for the Hoyas, but you do need to look a little deeper to see the importance of Julian Vaughn.
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Georgetown pulled off an impressive 69-66 road victory against the #8 Villanova Wildcats at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia thanks to a 30-point effort from senior Austin Freeman. The win was the Hoyas’ fourth straight, and it moved the team to 5-4 in the Big East conference.

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Georgetown: 69, Villanova: 66

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