LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Like a mirror of his reserved personality, Austin Freeman is never in a hurry with a basketball. He doesn’t make bad passes, he rarely rushes to put the ball on the floor and never forces a shot, even while scoring 24 points in a second half.

“I don’t let [anybody] rush me,” Freeman said after lifting Georgetown to a 70-60 win at Louisville. “I just want to stay aggressive.”

Down six at halftime, Freeman scored the first eight points of the second half to give the Hoyas a lead they would never relinquish. The junior guard finished with 29 points and was one basket shy of outscoring the Cardinals in the second frame.

“Austin [is] unique in that he can be aggressive and not force anything,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “He’s one of those guys that can go into an aggressive mode, but at the same time he’s not going to make too many mistakes [and] make too many bad decisions.”

Not only was Freeman aggressive in the second half, he was near perfect. He missed just one of his eight shot attempts and was a flawless 5-of-5 from three-point range and the free throw line.

For all of his touches on offense throughout the game, Freeman did not turn the ball over once and handed out four assists.

Freeman never rushed to take credit for his performance after the game, preferring an aw-shucks attitude rather than boasting about his exploits.

“I just wanted to stay aggressive in the second half and not force anything,” he said. “My teammates found me out on the wing, and I had the opportunity to take the shot and I did.”

Freeman’s game has been so calm this season that he often waits until the second half to pour in the points.

In a comeback win over Connecticut, Freeman had 28 in the second half – more than he had ever scored in a game to that point. He netted 13 and 17 in the second half of losses at Marquette and Villanova, respectively, and connected for 15 in the second frame against Syracuse last Thursday.

Still, Freeman remains reserved about his second-half explosions.

“If things don’t fall for me in the first half, I still want to stay aggressive in the second half,” he said. “Just today in the second half, everything was going for me.”

Thompson traced Freeman’s hot streak back to an offensive rebound early in the second half. The guard had already hit a three-pointer to open the half when he put back a miss by Julian Vaughn.

“It got started, I think, on the second play of the second half when Austin got a big offensive rebound and put back,” Thompson said. “That kind of got him going, which is an understatement.”

An understatement indeed.

It was the second-to-last Louisville game to ever be played at Freedom Hall – the arena that has been home to two National Champions in its 54-year history – but they might as well rename it Freeman Hall for the final night.

“Coming out of halftime I told him, ‘We need you to be aggressive,'” Thompson said.

The DeMatha sharpshooter hit three-pointers from all over the floor and was so hot that when he was fouled on his fifth triple, he fell to the floor and laughed as the ball swished through the net.

Still bashful, Freeman said it wasn’t until he hit that fifth three-pointer falling to the floor that he felt he was on a roll.

The Hoyas desperately needed their best three-point shooter to bust out of his mini-slump. He was 3-of-14 from beyond the arc in back-to-back losses to Rutgers and Syracuse.

“When he gets hot, I don’t think anyone can stop him,” Greg Monroe said. “He can do so many things – penetrate, he can score off the ball, he can shoot from three. . When he gets it going, he’s very tough to stop.”