The Hoyas rode an early flurry of threes to victory Monday night, scoring 32 points in the first 13:02 after scoring only 19 in the first half against Old Dominion in their season opener on Friday. Tulane (1-1) battled back towards the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second, but the Green Wave didn’t have the firepower to overcome the early deficit and Georgetown (2-0) held on for a comfortable 69-53 win at Verizon Center.

Both teams came out of the gates a little sluggish, and the score stood at 8-6 in favor of Georgetown after nearly four minutes of play, but a short hook shot by junior center Henry Sims – who was making his first career start in place of the sick Julian Vaughn – kick-started a 21-3 run for the Hoyas that spanned the better part of nine minutes. Senior guard Austin Freeman led the way with eight points during that stretch, while sophomore forward Hollis Thompson chipped in six points on 2-of-2 shooting from three-point distance.

The Hoyas’ outside shots stopped falling, though, and after a Clark three – Georgetown’s eighth on 12 attempts – made it 32-12 with 6:58 to play in the first half, the Green Wave went on a run of their own. The Blue and Gray would only score two more points the rest of the half, and Tulane senior guard Kris Richard hit his third three of the half with just under two minutes remaining to cut the Georgetown lead to 12 as the Hoyas entered the intermission with a 34-22 lead.

“[Tulane] clogged everything up when we threw it down [low],” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “It was apparent to me that their game plan was [to] give us threes, [and] more often than not I think we’re going to be okay if people do that.”

The Hoyas, who had only six points in the paint in the first half and zero trips to the charity stripe, picked up right where they had left off before halftime, scoring only two points on a longer jumper by Clark in the first 3:50 of the half. Fortunately, the Green Wave had only scored five points during that period, before Freeman converted a four-point play for the second game in a row and restored the Georgetown lead to double digits at 40-27.

“I read what [the defender] was doing, [I] came off the screen [and Sims] found me,” Freeman said. “I took the shot, and he fouled me.”

The lead wouldn’t dip below 13 the rest of the way and fluctuated between 21 and 24 points for much of the rest of the half until the Green Wave put together a mini-run over the last three minutes of the contest.

Offensively, the Blue and Gray were led by Freeman and Clark, who had 23 and 17 points, respectively, while sophomore guard Vee Sanford was the only other Hoya in double digits, chipping in 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting off the bench. Senior Chris Wright struggled from the field, making only 3-of-8 shots en route to seven points but tied his career-high with eight assists.

Thompson opened the postgame press conference with sobering news of Clark’s grandmother, who passed away earlier on Monday.

“Jason Clark’s grandmom passed away this afternoon,” a solemn Thompson said. “It’s been a difficult day for him [and] our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to him and his family.”

“She said when this day comes she wanted me to continue this, and she wanted me to succeed,” Clark said of his grandmother.

Playing with a heavy heart, Clark still played an integral role for the Hoyas, adding a team-leading 11 rebounds and five steals to his 17 points.

“I think it was a good team effort [on the boards],” Clark said. “They shot a lot of threes, so there was a lot of balls we had to run down that weren’t around the basket where usually big men would be.”

The Hoyas play next on Thursday in the opening round of the Charleston Classic in Charleston, S.C. Tip-off is at noon.

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