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Georgetown cruises past UMBC

Mar 21, 2008 - 11:06 PM By Brian Joura PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Former North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano once said to beware of any team with a hyphen in its name during the NCAA Tournament.

Jonathan Wallace and second-seeded Georgetown heeded that advice in the city that Valvano used to coach, taking care of business to put away upset-minded No. 15 Maryland-Baltimore County, 66-47, in the first round of the Midwest Regional on Friday.

The Hoyas (28-5) used a 17-3 run over a nine-minute stretch in the first half to build a 14-point lead that they never relinquished.

With the Retrievers (24-9) packing things in to try and neutralize the Hoyas' height advantage early on, Georgetown cashed in on open looks from the outside.

"You have to pick your poison," Maryland-Baltimore County coach Randy Monroe said. "Our defensive scheme was to double the ball inside and make (Roy) Hibbert pass the ball out. We were going to take our chances with their shooters hitting shots."

Wallace and freshman Chris Wright each had two 3-pointers in the opening half. The senior Wallace also added an old fashioned three-point play and led all scorers with 11 points in the first 20 minutes as the Hoyas held a 34-22 advantage.

"That's the way it's been all year," Wallace said. "Roy is such a handful down low. He takes up so much space it allows us to roam free and knock down shots."

Any thoughts of a second-half comeback were quickly doused when Georgetown embarked on a 10-2 run in the early minutes, pulling ahead 44-26 at the 14:40 mark. Freshman Austin Freeman scored five points in that stretch, including a 3-pointer to cap the run.

While they used their outside game in the opening half, the Hoyas made a concerted effort to get the ball inside after intermission.

Roy Hibbert ended up tied with Wallace with a team-high 13 points while Patrick Ewing Jr. added 10, eight of which came in the second half.

Overall, Georgetown outscored UMBC, 30-14, in the paint.

Darryl Proctor had 16 points and nine rebounds for UMBC, the champion from the American East Conference.

After the game, Hoyas coach John Thompson III praised the efforts of the Retrievers, who were making the first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history.

But he also had his mind on upcoming opponent No. 10 Davidson, which advanced with an 82-76 win over Gonzaga.

"Watching Davidson makes me feel worried," Thompson said. "Good prep, bad prep, at this point you just need to find a way to win and move on."

Thompson is concerned about Stephen Curry but insisted that Davidson was more than just the hot-shooting guard who erupted for 40 points.

"He can shoot the cover off the ball. And he has a group of people he's playing with who are not threatened by it," Thompson said. "Anybody who's watched that team play knows you can't focus on just him. They're a very balanced team, a very focused team, like they should be."