In his postgame remarks following Monday’s 71-62 win over Jacksonville, Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said that good things would happen for the No. 22 Hoyas when they put the ball in freshman center Greg Monroe’s hands. Georgetown gave that theorem a test on Saturday, and rode a near-perfect first half by Monroe to an easy 81-53 home victory over the Drexel Dragons.

onroe scored in a variety of ways in the first 20 minutes, en route to a 15 point, five rebound first-half performance. He scored on a high-flying ally-oop to start his afternoon, and then proceeded to convert an array of putbacks, drives, and nifty post moves, making five of his six first-half tries. For the game, Monroe scored 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting (6-for-6 from the line), and added eight rebounds, four assistants, three blocks and three steals.

“Greg’s an unselfish player,” Thompson said after the game. “He does a good job of making [a] decision on when it’s his turn [and] when it’s his teammates turn. He’s going to get better, he’s going to continue to get better. . He learns, he understands what we’re doing, he understands what we’re trying to accomplish and he understands the best way to facilitate that and make that happen relative to himself along with his teammates.”

Added Drexel Head Coach Bruiser Flint: “He’s a good player, we knew that. He’s going to be a guy that’s a very high draft pick. . He knows what he’s doing out there.”

Per a longstanding Georgetown policy, Monroe cannot speak to the media until January.

The Dragons took a 2-0 lead 56 seconds into the game on a pair of free throws by sophomore guard Jamie Harris, but failed to convert a field goal until 5:22 had elapsed. During that span, the Hoyas made seven consecutive field goals – the first six of which were layups – to take a 15-2 lead. Drexel twice cut the Georgetown lead to 10, but that was as close as the Dragons would come.

“We didn’t match their intensity and so by that time [five minutes in] it was over,” Flint said. “They didn’t have to run their offense. They did everything in transition. We actually wanted them to run their offense, we didn’t want them to get balls out in transition.”

As Monroe and sophomore guard Austin Freeman, who scored seven first-half points and 16 points overall, anchored the Georgetown offense, the Hoyas played swarming defense, holding Drexel to 31 percent shooting in the first half. Georgetown forced 11 turnovers in the first half and converted those into 16 points, starting with a sophomore guard Chris Wright swipe and layup 2:57 into the game. On the Dragons’ very next trip, Monroe forced a turnover by junior forward Evan Neisler, ran the floor, and received a perfect ally-oop from Wright.

For the afternoon, Georgetown forced 17 turnovers, made 13 steals, held Drexel to 24 percent shooting and scored 23 points off turnovers.

“I think we are able to pressure the ball,” Thompson said. “We have to be smart about it. We have to make sure the other four guys have the guy-defending-the-ball’s back in case there is penetration. . We have a group of guys that so far at the defensive end have done a very good job of working together and making sure [they are] thinking about [their] teammates and where is the help coming from. You take that with the ability of some of these guys to get out and pressure the ball, and hopefully as the year goes on we can continue to work on a few things.”

Flint said it was Georgetown’s physicality that made the Hoyas so successful on the defensive end.

“You cannot just let them push you around and take balls away from you – and we did,” he said.

onroe set the tone by scoring all 20 of his points in the paint or at the line. After Thompson criticized his team for taking too many quick threes against Jacksonville, the Hoyas made a concerted effort to work the ball into the post. The result? 40 points in the paint.

“We have the ability to get into the paint, to get to the rim, off of cuts, off of post ups, off of penetration, off of passes,” Thompson said. “That’s a focal point for us – let’s get it into the paint.”

Added senior guard Jessie Sapp: “I think we shot a pretty fair amount of threes [against Jacksonville] and we just wanted to get the ball inside more.”

Wright led the team with seven assists.

Facing their second straight smaller opponent, the Hoyas continued to struggle on the glass, allowing Drexel to grab 11 offensive rebounds. Though Georgetown outrebounded the Dragons 34-33 for the game, Drexel had several possession on which they got at least two shots.

Not helping the Hoyas’ rebounding efforts was the absence of sophomore forward Julian Vaughn, who was hobbled by a leg injury all week and stayed on the bench against the Dragons. Thompson said that Vaughn’s injury was relatively minor.

With Vaughn out, freshman forward Henry Sims saw his minutes increase from two against the Dolphins to 19 against the Dragons. Sims scored his first collegiate hoop 4:43 into the second half on an easy layup off of a Monroe feed. Still, he missed all three of his long-distance tries, grabbed just two rebounds, and looked far more like a freshman than his pal Monroe.

The Hoyas return to the court on Thursday when they face off against Wichita State in the first round of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. Should Georgetown win, it would play either Siena or Tennessee on Friday.

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