Fairfield’s zone kept Georgetown confined to the perimeter throughout the first half, limiting senior center Roy Hibbert to only two attempts from the field. It was not until there were about seven minutes left in the half that the Hoyas began to assert themselves and cut inside to the basket.

Even so, the Stags’ seven three-pointers kept them in contention. Fairfield kept feeding go-to junior guard Jonathan Han, who connected on three-of-four three-pointers in the first half and went on to score 17 points in the game. The teams went into halftime tied at 33.

Although Georgetown has continued to maintain a high shooting percentage, shooting nearly 50 percent in both halves, the team has relied a lot on threes, which can be an inconsistent. Considering that many undersized opponents have been double-teaming Hibbert and forcing the Hoyas to play an outside game, long-distance accuracy can make a difference for a team like Georgetown that is traditionally hot with the long ball.

“Because of the attention that Roy draws, we’re getting wide-open shots. On the days when you make them, you say, well, it looks great. On the days like the first half of this morning when they’re not going in, you’re sitting there saying, why are they taking so many threes?” Thompson said. “But [senior guard] Jon Wallace goes 3-for-8. You know, he’s our best shooter, he’s not gonna go 3-for-8.”

Going into the second half, Thompson said that the team looked to pick up its intensity on defense to cut down on open shots for its opponent. The Hoyas held the Stags to only 5-for-27 shooting in the second half, but they were never able to open up a big lead until the end due to poor free-throw shooting.

The Hoyas went 9-for-22 on the game at the line, and in particular, they could not connect on and-one opportunities that could have given the team some insurance.

“That was horrible. That’s the only way to put it,” Thompson said of Georgetown’s free-throw shooting. “That has to be fixed. We’re just giving away points.”

The Stags threatened with 6:41 left when Han stole Hibbert’s pass to sophomore forward DaJuan Summers and took it down the court for a three-pointer, bringing Fairfield to a point within Georgetown, 45-44. Soon after, freshman forward Warren Edney put back a missed shot to cut Fairfield’s deficit to two points, 48-46.

Summers, however, put a stop to Fairfield with a commanding block on sophomore center Anthony Johnson’s layup attempt. Georgetown never looked back from there.

“I thought that dude was gonna dunk it and DaJuan just came out of nowhere and just threw it,” sophomore guard Jeremiah Rivers said. “I was like, `I can’t believe you just blocked that.'”

“We had a defensive breakdown and he comes flying from the weak side,” Thompson said. “That was a terrific block. I thought that was an unbelievable block. And we needed that. Boy, did we need that right there.”

Summers and senior forward Patrick Ewing Jr. capped off the win with big dunks in the final minute.

Summers led Georgetown in scoring with 16 points. It was the first time that Hibbert, who finished with seven points, was not atop the scoring column this season.

Georgetown also improved on its rebounding after being outrebounded by Old Dominion last week. The Hoyas totaled 40 boards on the game, with 24 of them coming in the second half. Ewing and Hibbert each pulled down seven boards, but everybody contributed, including 6-foot-1 freshman guard Chris Wright, who had four in 14 minutes.

Georgetown suffered a setback with the loss of junior guard Jessie Sapp, who went down after being hit in the back of the head less than a minute after tip-off. After taking a while to get off the court, he did not reappear in the game until the beginning of the second half and only played for about six minutes.

Rivers was tapped to take his place and totaled a career-high nine points along with five assists, no turnovers and four rebounds.

“I’m not sure what happened to Sapp. I just saw him laying on the ground like he was in pain. But coach called my number and I got in there,” Rivers said. “I was gonna really just try to set the tempo for myself just with defense . and from there I just tried to do my best to get Roy and DaJuan going, especially early while Jon was trying to run the offense and what not.”

Thompson praised Rivers’ performance after the game, calling him “terrific.”

“[Rivers] can do so many different things on the court. He’s one of these guys who, you know, he can really dictate and set the tone and set the pace of the game whether he’s scoring or not with his passing, his rebounding and his defense,” Thompson said. “He’s been working extremely hard, and when he gets his open shots he’s gonna make them.”

One thing Rivers will surely be concentrating on going into the Alabama game, though, is free-throw shooting. He made only one of his four chances at the stripe.

“Shoot, I’m going back to the gym right after this, get some free throws up,” he said. “Usually at the end of practice we always have this free throw-type challenge thing. I have a feeling we’re going to be doing that quite heavily for the next week or so.”