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Georgetown starts fast in rout of Michigan

Nov 16, 2007 - 7:38 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- John Beilein might be wishing that he was back in West Virginia after this game.

Beilein's Michigan squad surrendered the first 12 points of the contest and was pounded, 74-52, by fifth-ranked Georgetown on Thursday.

After directing the Mountaineers to an NIT Championship last season, Beilein accepted the responsibility of replacing fired coach Tommy Amaker on April 3. In his five years at West Virginia, he went 104-60 and reached the Sweet 16 and round of eight in the NCAA Tournament.

However, the Hoyas made sure early that Beilein's winning ways would not transfer immediately to his new team.

After Georgetown jumped to an early 12-0 lead less than four minutes into the contest, Roy Hibbert and Jessie Sapp combined to score 18 of the team's 31 points over the remainder of the first half to take a commanding 43-19 lead heading into intermission.

So dominant was their early performance that Georgetown grabbed the game's first 11 rebounds on its way to holding a 45-31 advantage on the boards for the game.

"I thought (the defensive intensity) was key to tell you the truth," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "Our defense early in the game set the tone. I thought we made it difficult for them to get the looks they wanted to get. I thought, particularly early, we did a good job of rebounding and making sure they didn't get a chance at second shots."

The Hoyas extended the lead to as many as 27 points early in the second half, not allowing the Wolverines to get any closer than 19 over the final 20 minutes.

"I think it's pretty obvious to anyone here that these were two programs that are in different stages," Beilein said. "Georgetown is absolutely terrific. You can sit there and just watch them play and see how beautifully they play this game.

"Maybe our team sat there and watched them play because they are so efficient in everything they did. It was a great lesson for us to learn how teams can play in a system like theirs, be so efficient, score a lot of points and have a lot of fun."

Hibbert and Sapp scored 12 points apiece and freshman guards Chris Wright and Austin Freeman added 10 points apiece for Georgetown.

"They're a smart group of kids (the freshman class)," Thompson said. "They're going to go through the growing pains that freshmen go through. But it's good to get them out there against a quality opponent and give us something to talk about."

Freshman guard Kelvin Grady finished with 16 points for Michigan.

"I say that we're tape-delayed on offense and defense," Beilein said. "You know when you have a radio program and there's a two-second delay? We are right where we should be right now. This program takes a long time to fix and we're playing a top-10 team, if not a top-five."