HARTFORD, Conn. – Entering the Hoyas’ brutal three-game stretch to start Big East play, most pundits reckoned that Georgetown could probably grab at least one game. Perhaps they’d win at home against No. 3 Pittsburgh, or maybe, just maybe, they could steal a victory at No. 8 Notre Dame and end the lengthy Irish home winning streak.

Hardly anyone gave Georgetown any chance to win on the road against No. 2 Connecticut.

But that is exactly what Georgetown did, and in dominating fashion. The Hoyas never trailed, led by nine at halftime and by as many as 17 points in the second half, and won going away, 74-63. Junior forward DaJuan Summers led Georgetown with 18 points, and freshman center Greg Monroe and sophomore guard Chris Wright added 16.

“I want to congratulate Coach [John] Thompson [III] for coming in here and giving us a lesson on how to play basketball with enthusiasm, execution and energy. We got beat by a solid 20 points,” an exasperated Jim Calhoun said after the game.

Added Thompson: “We were just fortunate to come in here and come away with a win.”

After the game, both coaches pointed to a stretch with eight minutes remaining as the critical juncture. Georgetown led by 11 after two free throws by freshman guard Jason Clark.

“I told them.this is the key stretch right here,” Thompson said. “This is the key stretch right here, fellas, where we have to make the plays at both ends of the floor and our guys went out and executed and did it.”

After the free throws, UConn freshman guard Kemba Walker picked up a traveling violation against the Hoyas’ pressure defense, and Monroe got to the line at the other end, making both free throws.

Huskies’ Junior guard A.J. Price scored a layup, but Summers drove baseline on the other end, took a pass from sophomore Omar Wattad and drew the foul. With 6:36 left, he knocked down both free throws to extend the lead to 13.

Again, Connecticut attempted to strike back, hitting two free throws on offense and tying Georgetown up on defense, but Wright made a steal on the Hoyas next defensive stand before going to the line for yet another two successful foul shots.

After the Huskies threw their entry pass straight to senior guard Jessie Sapp on their next possession, Monroe found Wright cutting backdoor for another two points. Connecticut lost the ball out of bounds on their next possession and Summers made the Huskies pay for it, converting a long jumper as the shot clock ticked down. With 4:31 to go, Georgetown led by 17.

“With eight minutes to go, we were down like 12 and I didn’t like looking at my team. That’s the first time all year I can tell you that,” Calhoun said.

The contrast between Connecticut’s much-hyped Thabeet and the freshman Monroe was stark. While the 7-foot-3 Tanzanian struggled, to the tune of four points and seven rebounds, Monroe shined from the outset.

He intercepted an entry pass to Thabeet 14 seconds into the game. He found Freeman for Georgetown’s first basket of the night 1:52 into the contest. He drove past Thabeet for a layup to make the score 9-1 and he swished a three to make the scored 16-1 just over a minute later. Though Monroe was forced to the bench by his second foul with three minutes left in the first half, he still finished the period with a game-high nine points.

To begin the second stanza, Monroe picked up right where he left off. Thabeet continued daring him to shoot and the 6-foot-11 center accepted the challenge, drilling his second three-pointer 12 seconds into the half.

“Greg played well,” Wright said. “I think he had two threes, he rebounded well, he defended well, especially for his first time playing in an away game in the Big East. He played great to me. He kept his composure. Greg is very well composed.”

onroe finished his first Big East game with three rebounds, four assists and three steals to go along with his 16 points. He shot 6-of-10 from the field (2-of-2 from three) and 2-of-3 from the line.

Indeed, after a first half in which Georgetown went to the line just twice – missing both – the Hoyas went early and often in the second period. The Hoyas converted 18-of-19 second half free-throw attempts. Many of those fouls that sent Georgetown to the line drew the ire of Calhoun and the crowd of 16,294.

“Officiating was difficult at times but if guys are going to the hole that many times, you’re going to have problems,” Calhoun said.

Added Thompson: “We made 29 in a row at the shoot around this morning . We’ve been getting to the line and for the most part we’ve been making our foul shots. They extended the pressure and we wanted to drive the basketball a little bit and guys made their foul shots.”

When Monroe picked up his third foul 1:19 into the second half, Georgetown could very easily have allowed Connecticut back into the game. Thompson refused to let that to happen.

Swapping sophomore forward Julian Vaughn in on as many defensive swings as possible, Thompson kept Monroe in the game for 12 minutes of the second half. Vaughn’s impact was minimal statistically, but he kept the Georgetown matchup-zone defense stout.

“Julian gave us great minutes today, the whole second half, we were going offense-defense, trying to keep Julian in on defense and Greg in on offense,” Thompson said. “[Julian] was a presence in there – he was a terrific presence in there.”

The Hoyas, who have struggled on the glass all season long, actually finished the first half with a 18-16 advantage on the glass. For the game, they were outrebounded by a slim margin, 31-28. Georgetown’s starting guards ran down several long rebounds, as Freeman finished with six, Sapp five and Wright two. The Huskies scored 19 second-chance points, but their advantage on the glass made little difference.

“We haven’t been the best rebounding team in the world. That will change. Right?” Thompson said, turning to Summers and Wright for confirmation. “It’s as simple as that. But we did a good job. [The Hoyas] did a good job boxing out.”

After Wright converted Georgetown’s fourth three of the game six minutes into the first half, the Hoyas led 18-3, but Connecticut came right back. The Huskies closed to within four points, 28-24 with six minutes remaining in the half, thanks in large part to back-to-back threes by Price. Wright responded though, tossing in a one-handed runner with a minute left and a long two as time expired to give Georgetown a nine-point cushion at the break.

Not only frustrated, Calhoun was miffed by his team’s completely uninspired performance.

“Of all the things that could have happened tonight, I didn’t expect us to play as poorly as we did,” he said.

eanwhile, Thompson and his team were in typical subdued fashion in the post-game press conference.

“The commissioner is not handing out any trophies after tonight and we have a long, difficult road ahead of us,” the coach said. “It doesn’t get any easier, you can’t sit and dwell on this and enjoy this too much because we have [No. 3] Pitt on Saturday.”

Summers echoed his coach, saying, “We can’t really get too high off it. We have Pittsburgh Saturday, but I think we are where we are supposed to be. We have a lot of things we still need to work on, but I think everyone is aware of that and no one is comfortable with just beating UConn.”

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