HOYAS ROUGHED UP AT HOME, AGAIN

January 23, 2009

West Virginia is not going to go quietly from the Big East picture.

Georgetown found that out loud and clear last night on their home floor.

In a game that looked eerily similar to their early home loss to Pitt, Georgetown was out-toughed and out-hustled all night long as their usually efficient offense struggled agains an athleic and physical defense.

Da'Sean Butler poured in a game-high 27 points as WVU Knocks Off the Hoyas, 75-58 (Times West Virginian) in front of 12,875 fans and a national TV audience watching on ESPN.

The final rebounding margin showed a 39-31 edge for the undersized Mountaineers, but the dominance on the boards certainly seemed to be much more one-sided. After a slow start, trailing 9-2 early as they began the game 1-9 from the field, it was all WVU from that point on as Frustration, Errant Shots Doom Hoyas (Washington Times) against intense effort from Bob Huggins' squad.

With the Hoyas still hanging around and observers waiting for a Georgetown run to make things interesting, an Alex Ruoff Dunk Keys Mountaineer Upset (Daily Mail) run to close the game. With 5:32 left, Ruoff drove the lane as the Hoya defense parted like the Red Sea and he flushed home a one-hand jam that started a game-ending 17-7 run for the Mountaineers.

WVU, which also got 13 points from Darryl Bryant and 10 each from Ruoff and Wellington Smith, moved to 3-2 in the Big East. WVU next hosts rival Pittsburgh on Sunday.

The Hoyas, Humbled at Home (Washington Post), for the second time already in conference play, fell to 3-3 in league action.

Chris Wright led G'town with 13 points, but the sophomore point guard did not register an assist in his 31 minutes on the floor.

Notes:

-Georgetown turned the ball over 19 times, shot 39% and registered just 8 team assists, a stark contrast to the previous team quarterbacked by Jonathan Wallace

-Hoyas got 10 points from their bench, but they also committed 9 turnovers, 5 by Jason Clark

-Georgetown now hits the road for three games in seven days, beginning with Georgetown on Sunday, followed by Cincinnati on Wednesday and concluding with Marquette on Saturday the 31st.