Despite two new starters and three newcomers making their Georgetown debut, it was the veterans – forward Jeff Green, guard Jon Wallace and center Roy Hibbert – who kept the No. 8 Hoyas from suffering an embarrassing upset to the unranked Hartford Hawks.

In front of 9,654 fans at Verizon Center, most of whom were students decked out in gray, it was Georgetown’s junior class that got the Hoyas (1-0) the win, albeit a victory that was tighter than most expected.

The visiting Hartford Hawks (0-1) kept pace with the Hoyas for most of the game – they trailed by only four points with less than two minutes remaining – but Green, Hibbert and Wallace each scored in double digits and sophomores Jessie Sapp, a guard, and forward Marc Egerson came up with big plays down the stretch to give the Hoyas a 69-59 opening day victory.

“A lot of people expected this to be a blowout, but we knew they were a strong team, that they were going to prepare for us really well,” Wallace said. “We knew nothing was going to come easy today.”

Wallace, the one constant in the still-questionable backcourt, turned in a solid performance on opening day, putting up 13 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc. Green and Hibbert poured in 17 and 16 points, respectively, to lead Georgetown to a gritty win.

“They’re a great team,” Green said. “We didn’t come out expecting to blow them out. We knew they were a scrappy team, and they go hard every play, so we just go out there and play our game, and they hit a lot of baskets.”

Joining Wallace, Green and Hibbert in the starting lineup were Egerson and junior swingman Tyler Crawford.

Crawford, making his first career start, led the Hoyas with a career-high nine rebounds – many of which were contested – and made up for his less-than-stellar 3-for-12 (1-for-8 from three) shooting performance.

“Tyler Crawford can shoot,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “He missed today . but I feel like out of his 12 shots, most of them were wide open and he is gonna make those. . We are a much better shooting team than we shot today.”

Freshman guard Joe Zeglinski and senior forward Alex Zimnickas paced the Hawks with 14 points each. Zeglinski also led the Hawks with five rebounds.

“Our kids fought really hard,” Hartford Head Coach Dan Liebowitz said. “Sometimes size is just too much to overcome.”

Georgetown shot just 41.5 percent from the floor and went just 6-for-23 on three-pointers, proving that the Hoyas can get the win even on an off-day. Hartford put up slightly better numbers, shooting 44.9 percent from the floor and going 9-for-26 from deep, but the Hoyas outrebounded the Hawks 39 to 23 – and led 13 to four on the offensive glass – giving Georgetown an important advantage.

“I won’t overanalyze [our shooting],” Thompson said. “We have guys that put the ball in the basket, and it didn’t go in today. We were getting shots, but they were taking away everything on the interior, you know, get those shots, put them in.”

The Hawks opened up scoring with a trey from Zeglinski, demonstrating early that Liebowitz’s team could and would shoot well from three-point range. Wallace countered with a three-pointer of his own, and from there the two teams would trade baskets for the rest of the half.

Neither side led by more than two points until Georgetown twice stretched out a seven-point lead with under six minutes remaining in the half. As was the case the entire game, however, the Hawks came back and stuck with the Hoyas, trailing by only four points, 31-27, at the half.

Zeglinski opened up the second half with another three, but the Hoyas then went on a short run to open up an eight-point lead, 38-30. The fans at Verizon Center – the largest crowd for a season opener in Thompson’s three seasons at Georgetown – got loud as it appeared the Hoyas were finally going to pull away, but the Hawks would still not relent. Hartford kept it close, taking a 39-38 lead with 14 minutes remaining, but Georgetown took it back on a Green layup and the Hoyas would not relinquish their lead for the rest of the afternoon.

When the Hawks threatened late – they pulled to within four at 4:03 remaining – it was two unexpected Hoyas who stepped up. Sapp forced a turnover off a Hartford rebound and then had a key tip-in with 1:56 remaining. Egerson hit a clutch three at 1:20 to go to ice the victory for the Hoyas.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Wallace said. “They challenged us and stuck with us.”

The Hoyas will need a better performance if they hope to come away with another win in their second game of the season. On Wednesday night Georgetown faces off against Vanderbilt (0-0), which was picked to finish fourth in the SEC Eastern Division by the media at SEC Media Days.

Last year the Hoyas fell to the Commodores, 68-61, in Washington, D.C.

Game time for Wednesday is set at 9 p.m. at Memorial Coliseum in Nashville, Tenn.