PITTSBURGH – John Thompson III sounded like a broken record after his No. 12 Hoyas beat the No. 9 Pittsburgh Panthers.

“I’ve said this after probably the last four or five game and will probably say it into the future,” Thompson said. “We have different guys on any given night who can step up.”

Tonight it was junior guard Chris Wright, who scored a Big East career-high 27 points to give Georgetown a 74-66 victory, snapping the Panthers’ 31-game winning streak at the Petersen Events Center.

“Tonight just happened to be Chris’ night,” Thompson continued. “He didn’t do anything today that we don’t see everyday in practice [and] that you guys haven’t seen in games. It was just his night tonight and his teammates kept finding him.”

Sunday at Villanova the scorer was sophomore center Greg Monroe, who had a career-high 29 points. A week earlier it was Austin Freeman, as the junior guard scored a career-high 33 in a comeback win over Connecticut.

Thompson has stressed throughout the season that there are a number of players who can score, and that it does not matter to him or the players who gets the points. Every starter has been the leading scorer at least once this year.

“Our guys have done a terrific job of sharing the game and finding the open man and throwing it around,” Thompson said.

Wright, hampered by foul trouble and held to six points against Villanova, made big plays at every turn Wednesday night.

Coming out of a timeout with 6:23 on the clock and the game tied at 56, Pittsburgh switched from man-to-man to zone defense. The Hoyas worked the ball into junior forward Julian Vaughn who found Wright open on the perimeter. Wright’s third three-pointer of the game gave the Hoyas the lead for good.

“That was very good execution by our guys, coming out of a timeout [and] getting a shot we wanted for someone we wanted to take it,” Thompson said.

With 1:16 left and one second on the shot clock, Wright broke free from his man for an open lay up off of an inbounds play to stretch the lead to eight at 68-60.

“We noticed that they were playing very aggressive defense, and we wanted to get a good shot off,” Wright said of the play, which gave him 15 second-half points. “We believe we’re a second half team and we’ve proven that.”

Wright was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, including the Hoyas’ first three points of the game to stem a fast start from Pittsburgh. Yet it was his ability to get into the lane and finish drives that made him stand out.

“He’s a quick guy. When somebody can shoot the three as well as he can and drive the basketball and finish over 6-foot-10 guys – it’s definitely hard to guard somebody like that,” Pittsburgh senior guard Jermaine Dixon said. “I’ve seen him play since high school, and he’s looking like he was when he was a senior in high school.”

Wright hit two three-pointers in the first four minutes and then began to blow past his defenders.

“I think we were being aggressive and taking what the defense was giving us,” Wright said. “I noticed that they were closing out a little bit [on me], and so I wanted to attack the basket.”

The point guard finished the game 11-of-17 from the field thanks to some easy layups off of drives and out of bounds plays.

“He drove us a little more than we should have allowed,” Pittsburgh Head Coach Jamie Dixon said.

Wright stepped up his offensive game on a night when the Hoyas’ top two scorers – Freeman and Monroe – were not scoring consistently. Both netted 13 points, slightly below their season averages.

Freeman picked up his second foul 4:27 into the first half and had four with over 10 minutes to play in the game. He was 4-of-6 from the field and hit three free throws in the final 31 seconds to ice the game.

Coming off of his career-high effort on Sunday, Monroe struggled in the paint against Pittsburgh’s double teams. He shot 4-of-14, contributing the most with his 11 rebounds.

Though the Hoyas’ leading scorer changes nearly every game, Thompson’s refrain remains the same: any Hoya can score on any night.

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