There was no Sweetney, but it was no matter for the Hoyas.

Georgetown rolled to a 103-69 victory over Grambling St. despite the absence of Playboy All-American sophomore forward Mike Sweetney. Fellow frontcourt starter junior Wesley Wilson took over inside, dropping a career-high 23 points and pulling down 13 rebounds as No. 18 Georgetown improved to 4-1 on the season.

The win was more notable in exposing Georgetown’s current lack of depth rather than the dominant play on the court, however. Freshman forward Harvey Thomas twisted his ankle with 7:25 remaining in the first half and only briefly returned before sitting out the rest of the way, leaving Georgetown with a substantially depleted bench.

With guards RaMell Ross (foot) and Tony Bethel (mononucleosis) out for the foreseeable future and Sweetney sidelined by a tender Achilles, Thomas’ injury potentially leaves the Hoyas with just seven scholarship players. Additionally, junior forward Courtland Freeman has been battling a cold, and Head Coach Craig Esherick brought up the slight possibility that he too could have mono.

“Freeman hasn’t been able to shake a cold, and that is one of the signs of mono . let’s just hope that isn’t something else I have to worry about,” Esherick said. “It makes us awful thin with all these injuries. I’m hoping that by the time we get down to Columbia, S.C., we have enough people that I don’t have to worry about foul trouble.”

On the court, Georgetown pulled away after a somewhat sluggish start, riding senior point guard Kevin Braswell’s hot hand (20 points on 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc in 24 minutes) and junior forward Victor Samnick’s solid play. Samnick finished with a double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds, one of three double-doubles by the Hoyas on the evening (Wilson, Freeman).

The Hoyas held a 27-16 lead midway through the first but started to turn up the intensity on the outmatched Tigers and took a 49-30 lead into the half. The second half was more of the same, as Georgetown continued to pull away, largely by pounding the ball inside to Wilson, who had 15 of his 23 points after halftime.

Both Wilson and the Hoyas turned up the intensity in the minutes after halftime, settling for fewer outside shots and driving to the lane more. Georgetown took 17 three-pointers in the first half but only two in the second; meanwhile they only took 31 free throws after the midway point after taking just seven in the first half.

Six minutes into the second half, the Hoyas stretched their to 74-39, and the pace of the game slipped into cruise control as both teams let the blowout run its course. Georgetown emptied its depleted bench, giving forwards Omari Faulkner and Glennard Johnson substantial court time – but even junior walk-on point guard and two-sport athlete Trenton Hillier was unable to play, as he is recovering from a high-ankle sprain suffered during the football team’s season finale.

As the game wound down, six straight points by Wilson closed the book on Grambling, giving Georgetown its third-straight win after an upset loss to Georgia. What was Wilson’s best game in a Hoya uniform came after a slow start in which he didn’t score in the game’s first 15 minutes.

“I wasn’t happy with how he started the game, but once he got going in the second half I thought he played extremely well,” Esherick said of Wilson, who has emerged as Georgetown’s third major weapon at the offensive end after Sweetney and Braswell.

Leading the way for Grambling was guard Paul Haynes, who put 19 points on the board but needed 22 shots to do it, indicative of the shooting woes of the Tigers (37.8 percent from the field, 31.6 from behind the arc) against the Hoya defense.