• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Wright helps Georgetown avoid letdown

Dec 20, 2008 - 10:28 PM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Chris Wright made sure 13th-ranked Georgetown did not stumble following its biggest win of the season.

Wright scored 19 points Saturday, leading Georgetown to a 69-58 victory over pesky Mount St. Mary's.

The Hoyas have now won the first four games of their five-game homestand.

Wright connected on 6-of-11 from floor and was 6-of-9 from the free-throw line. He also pulled down five rebounds and handed out three assists.

"Chris is a really good player," Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown said. "We've seen Chris play since high school so we knew he was a good player.

"He made some plays, especially in the first when we actually played some really good defense, but his size and his speed allowed him to still make a play in the lane. We knew he was their best ball-handler and he really makes them go."

Georgetown (8-1) had not played since a 79-70 overtime victory over No. 21 Memphis on December 13, its first win over a ranked team this season.

The layoff appeared to affect Georgetown early on as the score was knotted at 24 with four minutes remaining in the first half.

"Yes, we're in exams, we've gone through two weeks of exams and all of these guys are fatigued," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. "I believe that this group no matter what is going on is tougher than that, is stronger than that.

"When we walk onto the court in practice at McDonough or in games here for that two or three hours whatever time it is, we can block that out."

The Hoyas finally shook off the rust and responded with a 9-0 run to close the first half, taking a 33-24 lead into the break.

Austin Freeman broke the tie with a layup, and Wright sank a pair of free throws with 2:41 left in the first half to put the Hoyas ahead 28-24.

Julian Vaughn added two more free throws and Jessie Sapp buried a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left to close out Georgetown's run.

The Hoyas increased their lead to 49-35 at the midway point of the second half behind Wright, who scored seven straight points on four free throws and a 3-pointer.

The Mountaineers (3-7) got as close as 58-52 with 4:45 left behind a 7-0 run, keyed by a 3-pointer and dunk by Kelly Beidler.

"I was pleased with the effort," Brown said. "I thought down the stretch we had a couple of lapses that could've put us in better position to win."

The reigning Northeast Conference champions would not get any closer as the Hoyas responded with a pair of free throws by DaJuan Summers and a layup by Sapp to take control down the stretch.

Summers finished with 13 points and Freeman added 10 for Georgetown, which shot 39 percent (19-of-49) from the floor.

"Even though we won the game, I don't think anyone feels like we won," Summers said. "Next game won't be like this - any game. It wasn't that we had a bad shooting (game). The effort wasn't there."

Mount St. Mary's was led by Beidler, who scored 16 points.

Sam Atupem added 12 points and Jean Cajou added 10 as the Mountaineers connected on 38 percent (23-of-60) of their shots from the field.

Mount St. Mary leading scorer, Jeremy Goode, who averages 17.6 points per game, was held to eight. He missed 10 of his 12 field goal attempts.

"We wanted to shadow him and have everybody else aware of him," Thompson said.