Blame it on Sports Illustrated.

Superstitious fans have long warned that an appearance on the cover of the magazine is a curse, a jinx, a kiss of death. After Sunday night, the Hoyas might be believers, too.

In the same week that SI featured Georgetown juniors center Roy Hibbert and guard Jonathan Wallace on its cover, the then-No. 8 Hoyas (2-1) were upset 75-62 by the unranked Old Dominion Monarchs (4-1) in McDonough Gymnasium, the Hoyas’ first loss in their on-campus arena in 24 years.

Georgetown dropped six spots in the latest AP poll, to No. 14.

“We went into this game knowing that it was going to be an extremely difficult game, and that’s not really any great realization right now,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “We wanted some challenges in the preseason, we have some on our schedule, and we sure as hell got one tonight.”

In the last 24 years, since Georgetown moved its games off campus, the Hoyas were 23-0 in the friendly confines of McDonough – until Sunday’s Old Dominion win, which was the onarchs’ first over a ranked opponent since they defeated No. 9 Villanova in triple overtime in the 1995 NCAA tournament. Since then, ODU had lost seven straight to top 25 teams.

“I’m just really happy for our kids, our program, our institution,” Old Dominion Head Coach Blaine Taylor said, calling this the biggest win during his tenure at ODU. “This is pretty good stuff for us, to play a deserved, ranked opponent and to play this well.”

The Monarchs’ stellar play was aided by a flat performance by the Hoyas. Old Dominion shot 58 percent in the second half, out-rebounded Georgetown 35-28, did not commit a turnover in the final 15 minutes of play and hit five three-pointers in a row during a 21-3 run in the second half. The Hoyas got beat 15-7 on the offensive glass and hit just 6-of-11 free throws in the second period. Standout junior forward Jeff Green scored just two points before fouling out in the final minutes of the game.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed from the loss,” Wallace said. “But at the same time, you’ve got to take this game – it opens our eyes. We didn’t play as hard as we could have. We got out-worked in certain situations. . The effort lacked at times. The intensity wasn’t there.”

The Monarchs more than made up for the Hoyas’ intensity deficit, however. Aside from significantly out-rebounding the Hoyas, the Monarchs showed more hustle, getting to loose balls first and dominating time of possession late in the second half to hold onto their lead. The long possessions for ODU – which lasted as long as a minute and a half when the Monarchs collected multiple offensive rebounds – took the Hoyas out of their rhythm and, paired with solid free throw shooting (13-of-16), put the win out of reach for the Hoyas late.

“I think out-rebounding them was very significant and we got some extra possessions in the second half,” Taylor said. “I thought our kids really dug in on the defensive end and made it hard down the stretch for them to score. And then, of course, we made the free throws and made some shots, which you’ve got to do under the circumstances to beat a quality opponent like Georgetown.”

One stat line that doomed the Hoyas was Green’s measly two-point, three-rebound, two-assist performance. In one of the worst outings of his career, Green sat for much of the first half with two fouls, similar to last week’s game at Vanderbilt, when he also got in foul trouble early. At Vanderbilt, Green came out of the break and turned his game around, but Sunday against the onarchs he contributed nothing to the Hoyas’ second-half effort, save a missed shot, a turnover and three personal fouls.

“I thought they did a good job on Jeff,” Thompson said. “Everyone knows – this is no secret – he’s such an integral part, such a key to what we do. When he is off, more than likely, we will be off. That doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

Green was the only Georgetown starter who failed to reach double-digits in scoring. Hibbert – who hid his face in his jersey for the final moments of the game, refusing to watch the closing seconds of the loss – led all scorers with 17 points, followed by sophomore guard Jessie Sapp with a career-high 16 points, Wallace with 13 and sophomore forward Marc Egerson with 11. Egerson also grabbed 10 boards for his first career double-double.

Hibbert went 7-8 from the field, including a perfect 4-4 in the second half. However, the Hoyas struggled to get the ball to the 7-foot-2 center in the post during key possessions late in the game.

The Monarchs had four players who scored in double digits as well. Senior forward Valdas Vasylius led ODU with 16 points, followed by senior forward Arnaud Dahi with 15, junior guard Brandon Johnson with 14 and sophomore forward Jonathan Adams with 10.

The Monarchs’ leading scorer of the year, senior point guard Drew Williamson, had a quiet night, going 1-for-7 from the floor and scoring just nine points in the game, but he did the majority of the ball handling down the stretch and made sure the onarchs did not commit costly turnovers.

“We had some real silent contribution. Jonathan Adams really was a significant player for us in the second half of the game,” Taylor said. “We were struggling with Hibbert and I thought Gerald Lee, the freshman, came in and gave us really quality minutes. And then I can’t say enough about the way that some of the other kids were just warriors. . [They] had a look in their eye like they believed we belonged in the game, and they believed we were going to have a chance to win the game.”

In addition to the play of Hibbert, Sapp, and Egerson, Wallace’s performance was a positive for the Hoyas. After the departure of Ashanti Cook (COL ’06), Wallace was asked to step up as the new floor general, and he looked comfortable in that role Sunday night. Wallace went 3-of-6 from behind the arc – keeping his three-point-shooting average at .500 on the year – but, more significant than the number of shots he hit was the timing of his scores. Each of Wallace’s baskets came following a big Monarch score and showed both his desire to have the ball in his hands when the Hoyas needed a key basket and his ability to convert those much-needed shots.

He hit a three after ODU took the lead for the first time at 19-18 to put Georgetown back up 21-19, he made another trey after the Monarchs tied the game at 31-31 early in the second half, and during the Monarch’s 21-3 run, the Hoyas’ three points came courtesy of Wallace.

But Wallace’s play was not enough to carry the Hoyas Sunday night. With opponents like Oregon (4-0) and No. 8 Duke (3-0) on the schedule in the next two weeks, Georgetown will need to settle down and Green will have to return to his regular form if the Hoyas hope to stay in the top 25.

“It’s still early,” Thompson said. “We have a long way to go. We have a lot of improvements to make.”