NEW YORK – Sophomore center Greg Monroe set career highs in both points and rebounds, with 24 and 15 respectively, but after his performance Head Coach John Thompson III wanted to talk about his entire team.

“That really was a total team effort there,” the sixth-year head coach said. “It’s easy to talk about what Greg did, what Austin did, but look at the minutes [freshman guard] Vee [Sanford] gave in the first half were huge. The minutes [freshman forward] Jerrelle [Benimon] played were huge.”

Led by Monroe and Freeman (18 points), eight Hoyas got into the scoring column as No. 15 Georgetown (7-0) outlasted No. 22 Butler (6-3) 72-65 on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. The win was the first against a ranked opponent for Georgetown since February of last season when the Hoyas knocked of then-No. 12 Villanova 56-54 in Philadelphia.

Down 11-10 with 13:07 to go in the first half, Monroe took the ball in the paint and scored to give Georgetown a lead which it would not relinquish for rest of the game. Monroe attributed the quick start to Georgetown’s early intensity.

“I think today the whole team had an energy about themselves,” Monroe said. “That energy came from us coming into the game.”

From then on, the “give Greg Monroe the ball” game plan went into full effect as the Hoyas found Monroe in the paint on possession after possession. The sophomore ended the first half with 14 points on 10 field goal attempts, and he finished with 24 points on 9-of-20 shooting.

It was not just Monroe though. Sophomore guard Jason Clark continued his stellar play with nine points, seven of which came in the first half, and an assist in the contest.

onroe’s basket started a 14-5 Georgetown run, capped off by a backdoor layup by Clark off of a feed from Monroe to give Georgetown a comfortable advantage.

The Hoyas held a commanding lead for much of the second half, building a 17-point lead with 13:35 to go in the game thanks to a trio of three-pointers by Freeman and freshman forward Hollis Thompson. Freeman went 5-of-7 from the floor and 4-of-5 from three-point range to pace the Hoyas’ surge.

“The hard part tonight of defending Georgetown was Freeman’s proficiency,” Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens. “Monroe obviously attempted more field goals than in any other game this year. If you told me he ends up 9-for-20, with 10 free throws and he only has 24 points, I would have said that’s not all bad.”

Butler, which has made three straight NCAA tournament appearances, was not going to go away quietly.

“People talk about their system and how they play,” Thompson said. “They have really good players who could play on any team in any conference, and then you combine that with their system.”

Attrition became a problem for the Hoyas in the second half as Butler started drawing fouls. The Hoyas were called for 14 personal fouls in the second half. Sims, Freeman and Vaughn were all nursing multiple personal fouls on the sideline, and Thompson looked to his bench and brought on Benimon.

With Butler inching back into the game, he took a miss by junior guard Chris Wright (seven points, four assists) and tipped it in for two points to stem a 5-0 Bulldog run. The Hoyas held a 43-30 rebounding advantage in the contest.

“We had guys in foul trouble, and I wanted to see how he would respond,” Thompson said about his decision to sub Benimon in.

After starting the game 8-for-9 from the free-throw line, the Hoyas went 12-for-17 in the second half, including a spell in which the Hoyas missed three-of-four from the line in the final three minutes of the game.

Some timely free-throw shooting and key misses by the Bulldogs – who shot an abysmal 31.1 percent from the floor compared to Georgetown’s 44.9 percent – allowed the Hoyas to thwart the comeback and complete the seven-point victory.

Next up for Georgetown is a cross-country road trip to face No. 17 Washington in the John Wooden Classic.

Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. in Anaheim, Calif.

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