If the Hoyas were disappointed about playing themselves out of the NCAA Tournament with a late-season skid, they did not show it Wednesday night. A 25-2 run that stretched nearly 10 minutes in the first half broke the game wide open as Georgetown rolled to a 64-34 victory over Boston University in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament before 2,797 at MCI Center.

“That feels good, because that’s a good team,” an extremely upbeat Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said after the game. “The score didn’t indicate that, but they’re well-coached, and that’s a very good win for us, as all wins are this time of year.”

Georgetown avoided the fate of so many major conference teams, most recently Notre Dame and Miami on Tuesday night, who missed out on an at-large bid in the final games of the season and then promptly got bounced in the first round of the NIT. Instead, the Hoyas (18-12) recorded their second largest victory of the season and held the Terriers (20-9) to their worst offensive showing of the year.

“There are so few teams that have the opportunity to play right now, and it’s special,” Thompson said. “If you’re playing this time of year, it’s special. Teams you play, you can beat, and they can beat you.”

The Terriers’ previous scoring low was 45 in a loss to aine in the quarterfinals of the America East Conference Tournament. BU’s 34 points matched Georgetown’s best defensive showing of the season. Boston shot just 13-55 from the field.

“Against a team that it is as well-coached and as patient as Georgetown is, if you’re going to be sloppy, you’re going to end up like we did,” BU Head Coach Dennis Wolff said.

BU entered the game with the second best field-goal percentage defense in the nation at 36.8 percent. The Terriers played up to their ranking in the opening minutes as the Hoyas missed seven of their first nine shots. A dunk by senior forward Rashad Bell put BU up 9-7 with 13:55 to play, but that was the last time all night the score would be in doubt. The Hoyas scored the next 13 points in the game and 25 of the next 27 over the next 8:28 to take a commanding 32-11 lead. Freshman forward Jeff Green had seven points during the run and was outscoring the Terriers by himself until the 4:16 mark of the first half. Georgetown led 34-15 at the intermission.

While the Hoyas’ leading scorer, junior forward Brandon Bowman, had one of his quieter games with just six points in only 23 minutes, Green had another big game, with 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Senior swingman Darrel Owens picked up right where he left off in the Big East Tournament, matching Green with 17 points. He hit five of seven shots from downtown and had five rebounds and four assists.

“I just wanted to shoot the ball like I was capable of shooting it,” Owens said.

Owens averaged only 6.1 points per game on the season but has 44 points in the Hoyas’ three postseason games.

“Darrel seems to make more shots when he’s doing other things,” Thompson said. “He seems to make more shots when he’s not just focused on making shots. He was involved in every aspect of the game tonight.”

Georgetown will next meet the winner of this weekend’s matchup between Cal State Fullerton and San Francisco. The Hoyas are at a disadvantage, since they will not know for certain the time or location of their game until their opponent’s first round game is played, but another home game is a possibility.

Whoever the next opponent is, Georgetown seems to have put the disappointment of not reaching the NCAA Tournament behind it as it looks toward going as far as possible this March.

“It’s a postseason tournament,” Bowman said. “It’s an honor to be in it and compete for a championship, whether it’s NCAA or NIT.”

Hoya Notes: A couple of Georgetown basketball alumni were on hand for Wednesday’s game. Former Georgetown assistant coach Ronnie Thompson (COL ’92), who is currently an assistant coach at Arkansas, sat a few rows behind his brother and the Georgetown bench. Just like Georgetown did in 2002 when Thompson was an assistant here, the Razorbacks refused an NIT invite. Courtland Freeman (COL ’03) was also at the game.