It was not the prettiest performance of the season, but Georgetown will certainly take it.

The Hoyas overcame one of their worst shooting performances of the season and finally got their offense going late to scratch out a hard fought 62-55 victory over the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers on Tuesday night before a crowd of 6,905 at MCI Center.

“Pretty, ugly, kind of cute, a win is a win,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said.

With a pair of tough conference road games on horizon next week against Villanova and Syracuse, Georgetown avoided what could have been a crippling home loss in conference play despite not taking a lead until the game was nearly 37 minutes old. The Hoyas improved their record to 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the Big East. Rutgers fell to 6-6 overall and 0-2 in the Big East.

“You keep going at your opponent nonstop, you’re going to come out on top,” freshman guard Jonathan Wallace said.

In the opening 20 minutes, the Hoyas bore little resemblance to the team that won on the road against No.18 Pittsburgh last week. Georgetown started out slowly for the second straight game. The first half was a good candidate to be the Hoyas’ worst half of basketball so far this season. They did not score until more than six minutes had elapsed, shot 33 percent from the field and missed all nine three-point attempts in the first half of basketball this season in which the Hoyas did not make a single three.

The key stat in the first half was points off turnovers. The Scarlet Knights scored 12 points off 10 Hoya turnovers while the Hoyas did not score any points off the Scarlet Knights’ seven turnovers.

Thompson experimented with a number of different combinations in the first half, including playing four freshmen, center Roy Hibbert, forward Jeff Green and guards Wallace and Tyler Crawford, along with sophomore guard Ray Reed, but nothing got the Georgetown offense going, and it went into the locker room trailing 26-18.

Thompson acknowledged after the game that he was looking for any combination to work in the first half.

“We were very fortunate to just be down eight,” he said. “They controlled the flow of the game, but this group just doesn’t quit, and that’s good.”

Rutgers was probably more familiar than most with the offense that Georgetown runs. They had already faced Princeton and the Air Force Academy this year, which have similar styles to Georgetown’s on the offensive end.

“We don’t run the same plays as Princeton and Air Force, but the flow of the game is the same, and they were ready for it,” Thompson said. “I thought our guys did a good job of not panicking.”

Georgetown slowly began to chip away at the Rutgers lead in the first part of the second half. It put together an 8-0 run, capped off by a transition three-pointer by senior swingman Darrel Owens to cut the lead to 40-38 with 9:34 remaining in the game. It was the closest the Hoyas had been since the score was 10-8 at the midway point of the first half.

The teams traded baskets over the next four minutes before junior guard Ashanti Cook rebounded a missed three by junior forward Brandon Bowman. The Hoyas regrouped offensively before Cook drilled a long two from the right corner to tie the game for the first time at 44-44 with 5:43 remaining.

Where so many Georgetown teams have faltered in the past, especially in conference play, these Hoyas played their best basketball in the game’s final minutes. After sophomore guard Quincy Douby sank a three, Georgetown turned up the pressure defensively and scored 11 unanswered points over the next four minutes to open up an eight-point lead. Green’s three from the top of the key with 1:28 left capped off the run and ignited the home crowd. Despite five missed free throws by the Hoyas at the end, the Scarlet Knights would get no closer than three points in the game’s final minute.

Green led the way on offense, finishing the game with 16 points (10 of which came in the second half), 10 rebounds and five blocks. It was his third double-double of the season.

Owens tied a season-high with 14 points, including a trio of big threes in the second half.

Defensively, Georgetown was able to force a pair of key turnovers in the last five minutes to help propel the run.

“Tonight in the second half, we made some key traps, and it looked like it bothered them at the end of the game,” Owens said.

Georgetown returns to action Saturday when it travels to face Villanova. The Wildcats picked up a big road win on Tuesday, beating Providence 83-78 in overtime. Georgetown has lost six of its last eight games against the conference rival and has not won at Villanova since 1998, when John Thompson II was still on the sidelines.