Despite several chances to get back into the game, the Georgetown men’s basketball team could not recover from a 20-point halftime deficit against Connecticut on Saturday, eventually falling at home 66-59 to the defending national champions.

The Hoyas, who have not beaten the Huskies since 1997, snapped their five-game winning streak and dropped to 9-4 overall and 1-1 in the Big East. Georgetown faced No. 9 Connecticut (9-2, 1-1) fresh after upsetting No. 12 Pittsburgh on Wednesday, 67-64.

Led by sophomore forward Charlie Villanueva, Connecticut seemed to have put their surprise defeat at the hands of Boston College behind them. They took an early 9-2 lead, which they held onto for the entire game.

Villanueva finished the game with 19 points, tied for a team high with junior forward Denham Brown.

But Villanueva was even more valuable on the boards, tallying 13 rebounds including five on offense.

“He was a killer tonight,” Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun.

All of the Huskies’ big men, including freshman forward Rudy Gay, proved too dominant for the undersized Hoyas, grabbing 32 rebounds – 11 on offense – just in the first half. Blatant mismatches defined that half, as Connecticut put in 16 points in the paint and scored 12 second-chance points.

The Huskies’ other starting forward, sophomore Josh Boone, escaped with a sub-par performance. He scored only eight points in 35 minutes, largely because of the physical presence from Georgetown freshman forward Jeff Green.

Green, whom Calhoun referred to as one of the two best freshman athletes in the league, led the Hoyas with a career- and game-high 22 points.

“A lot of responsibility is put on our freshman class,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson said. The three freshman starters – Green, guard Jonathan Wallace and center Roy Hibbert – at times showed inexperience but at other times seemed to fit in with their more seasoned teammates, junior guards Brandon Bowman and Ashanti Cook. Wallace fouled out with nine points, all second-half three-pointers, and the three combined for nine of the team’s 15 turnovers.

“Tonight hopefully is part of the learning process for [Green] and for us,” Thompson said.

Georgetown, which upset No. 16 Pittsburgh Wednesday, rarely got off an open look before the half, and even the few open shots they attempted were off-balanced. The Hoyas shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half, marked by an abysmal 2-for-11 from beyond the arc.

“There was not much about that first half that was Georgetown basketball,” Thompson said.

Senior swingman Darrel Owens gave credit to the coaching staff for the team’s turnaround coming out of the locker room. “In the first half a lot of guys took it upon themselves to make big plays,” he said.

After the break, the Hoyas looked like a different team, sparked by a 15-2 run early in half. With the help of MCI Center’s 11,363 newly-awoken fans, the Hoyas were able to cut a deficit that had fallen as deep as 22 points to six with just under 10 minutes to go. The Hoyas switched into a zone defense early in the second half which helped keep the Connecticut frontmen away from the basket, cutting the Huskies’ rebounds and second-chance points in half.

But the Huskies would not let the lead slip away from them. Brown scored 12 points in the final 10 minutes to quell any last hope for a Georgetown comeback. The Hoyas cut the deficit again to six with a three by Cook, who scored nine points in the game, but UConn closed out the game with four free throws and a seven-point victory.

Despite his team’s valiant effort in the second half, the Hoyas are not looking for moral victories, Thompson said.

“We can not win games if we play 20 minutes of basketball. We cannot win games if we play 30 minutes of basketball,” he said.

The Hoyas face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (6-5, 0-1) Tuesday at home. Rutgers, who may be one of the weaker teams on the Hoyas’ conference schedule, lost to Pittsburgh on by three in overtime on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.