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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Hoyas Outrun Bulls, Move On to Big East Quarters

Sophomore guard Jason Clark had 16 points, six rebounds and three steals to lead the Hoyas to a 69-49 victory over South Florida in the second round of the Big East tournament.
Sophomore guard Jason Clark had 16 points, six rebounds and three steals to lead the Hoyas to a 69-49 victory over South Florida in the second round of the Big East tournament.

NEW YORK – In February, Georgetown (21-9) let an 11-point second-half lead slip away in a loss to South Florida (20-12). In the second round of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, the eighth-seeded Hoyas withstood a second-half push from the ninth-seeded Bulls to pull away with a 69-49 win.

The Hoyas were led by sophomores Jason Clark and Greg Monroe, both of whom scored 16 points.

“We took the right shots,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “I think our guys did a good job of helping each other.”

Junior guard Chris Wright got things started early, taking eight of the Hoyas’ first 18 shots en route to 10 first-half points. Wright ended the day with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and no turnovers.

“We’ve won when I haven’t scored and we’ve won when I have,” Wright said. “It’s just a matter of me understanding the flow of the game and being a leader and finding who’s hot.”

Clark aided Wright in sparking the Hoyas, going 3-of-5 from three-point range in the first half for nine points, including a tough stepback three with a defender in his face.

“Jason made some shots but that’s not abnormal,” Thompson said. “He’s a very good shooter out there and guys did a good job of finding him.”

While Wright spent the first half slashing through the paint, South Florida spent the first 20 minutes wondering what it took to get the ball to fall into the basket. A combination of poor shooting – the Bulls only hit one three-point shot in two Big East tournament games – some unlucky rolls and the Hoyas’ defense held the Bulls to 26.7 percent shooting from the floor in the first half.

“We struggled to find a shot,” South Florida Head Coach Stan Heath said. “It happened yesterday, but today it really caught up to us.”

The Hoyas shot 44.4 percent from both the floor and three-point range in the first half.

The Bulls jumped out of the gate early in the second half with a 10-4 run to cut a 31-19 halftime score to 35-29 with 16:52 to play in the game. The run was capped by a three-point play by Jarrid Famous, who scored for the second time in as many possessions off of a Dominique Jones assist and drew Julian Vaughn’s fourth foul.

Jones, a junior guard, who had 29 points in February, dropped 21 points with five rebounds and four assists.

“It feels like on the first 10 possessions of the second half we got fouls called on us,” Thompson said. “It’s easy to get frustrated at that point, but I think our guys did a good job of weathering the storm.”

With Vaughn on the bench, Freeman drew a foul the next time down and calmly sunk both free throws. The Hoyas, who went 11-of-22 from the line in the February loss, went 8-of-9 on the day, while the Bulls were 16-of-25.

Sophomore center Gus Gilchrist responded with two points of his own off a feed from Jones to cut the lead back to six. It was the closest South Florida would get.

The next time down, it was the Hoyas bench that got them off the hook with Freeman finding freshman forward Hollis Thompson wide open on the right wing for a three to push the lead to nine at 40-31.

Vaughn eventually fouled out with 9:10 to go and Monroe, Wright and Thompson all found themselves with four fouls soon after. Turning to his bench, Thompson found guys who responded, providing key rebounds and minutes for Georgetown down the stretch. The Hoyas had eight bench points, and the bench contributed eight rebounds, including four by freshman forward Jerrelle Benimon and two by sophomore Henry Sims.

“We are, I am, the team is much more comfortable at this point than we were earlier with guys coming off the bench,” Thompson said. “Henry came in and gave us good minutes. Jerrelle came in and gave us good minutes.”

Heath saw the point when Monroe got into foul trouble as a key moment in the game that his team let slip away.

“I really thought that was a pivotal time that we could make a run and put the pressure on,\” he said. \”I don’t think it was anything necessarily that they did. We just could not make any shots. They made a couple of threes. I thought Clark really picked things up for them. I thought Wright picked things up for them with Monroe out of the game. We weren’t able to stop them or keep pace offensively against them.\”

A couple of threes by Wright and Clark mixed with 12 second-half points for Monroe turned the six-point game into a 20-point blowout. Against a South Florida full-court press the Hoyas had just three turnovers in the second half and seven on the day.

The Hoyas shot 45.8 percent from the floor on the day while the Bulls, who won the rebounding battle 40-37, finished 29.1 percent from the floor.

Next up for the Hoyas is a third meeting against Syracuse. The Orange defeated the Hoyas 73-56 at home in January and then withstood a late Georgetown surge for a 75-71 win last month at Verizon Center. Tipoff is scheduled for noon.

*Follow us on [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/thehoyasports) and at [The Hoya Paranoia](https://blogs.thehoya.com/paranoia).*

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