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Hibbert, Georgetown post sixth straight win

Feb 8, 2007 - 6:58 AM LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) -- On a night that Louisville honored Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum, Georgetown turned to Roy Hibbert to conjure memories of the past.

Hibbert scored 20 points on near-perfect shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds as the No. 23 Hoyas captured their sixth straight win with a 73-65 Big East Conference victory over Louisville.

The architect of making the Cardinals a national power, Crum won 675 games and two national titles in his 30 seasons with the school. On Wednesday, Louisville dedicated the court at Freedom Hall in his name in a pregame ceremony.

While the Cardinals fans were busy reminiscing of better days, Hibbert showed flashes of the dominant centers that played with the Hoyas in the 1980s and 1990s - Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning.

Converting his first four shot attempts, including a dunk with 13:30 left in the first, Hibbert led Georgetown (17-5, 7-2 Big East) to a 12-3 start.

The 7-2 junior finished with 10 points in the first half and 6-9 Jeff Green had 11 as the Hoyas held a 38-31 advantage at the break.

"Well, to be perfectly honest, they were a much better basketball team than us," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "Those two big guys are almost impossible to stop because of their size. We did some good things but we just could not defend them. They were too strong. They executed too well."

Georgetown, which fell short of posting its sixth consecutive league win by 10 or more points for the first time since 1984-85, extended that advantage to 52-39 on a jumper by Green with 9:41 left.

Louisville (16-7, 6-4) managed to close within 52-47 after freshman Earl Clark's layup capped an 8-0 run with 6:20 left. However, DaJuan Summers answered back with a 3-pointer for Georgetown.

"It's just maturity. As the season has progressed, we've gotten better," said Georgetown coach John Thompson III about dealing with the Cardinals' run. "We did a good job of just settling down. They're going to make runs; they're a very good team, a balanced team. I think our guys did a good job of staying poised, relaxed and trying to get what we wanted to get at both ends of the floor."

Summers, who finished with 13 points, later found Hibbert for a dunk on a bounce pass from the high post and hit another 3-pointer to make it 63-53 with 1:44 to go.

Hibbert finished 9-of-10 from the field and Green scored 16 points and collected seven rebounds for the Hoyas, who shot 57 percent (26-of-46) and held a 35-30 edge on the boards in improving to 4-2 in the all-time series with the Cardinals.

"They were (outstanding). I felt like particularly when we had to our guys did a good job of hitting the boards and getting the rebounds," Thompson said. "I felt like we got big rebounds when we needed and both Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert on the offensive end, I thought, were very good."

Clark had 14 points for Louisville, which absorbed a second straight loss despite setting a school record by committing just one turnover.

Georgetown, which entered the game averaging 14 turnovers, had just seven.

"I think we could have played them 10 times and they would have won nine," Pitino said. "We had to play almost a perfect game and we knew that going in."

Freshman Edgar Sosa had 11 points for the Cardinals, proving to be the only one of the team's top four scorers to live up to his average.

The trio of leading scorer Terrence Williams and big men David Padgett and Juan Palacios combined for just 19 points on 5-of-29 shooting (17 percent).