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Georgetown dominates West Virginia, wins eighth straight

Feb 13, 2007 - 5:51 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Roy Hibbert and Georgetown are rolling and West Virginia was powerless to stop them.

Hibbert scored 20 points and the 16th-ranked Hoyas did little wrong en route to an easy 71-53 victory over No. 22 West Virginia in a Big East Conference contest.

Going in, the game looked like a matchup between a pair of hot teams. But while the Hoyas were sizzling from the field, the Mountaineers could not overcome a frigid start.

Georgetown (19-5, 9-2 Big East) actually trailed, 8-7, early on but a 17-0 run turned the game into a rout.

Hibbert scored eight points during the run and capped it with a pair of free throws with 7:53 left in the half. Jeff Green gave the Hoyas a 37-20 lead at the half with a dunk in the closing seconds.

"The guys are doing a great job getting the ball to me inside," Hibbert said. "We are playing great as a team. Everybody is stepping up."

Georgetown was 15-of-19 (79 percent) from the field in the first half while West Virginia hit 30 percent (8-of-27). The Hoyas cooled off a bit in the second half but it did not stop them from winning their eighth straight, all against Big East opponents.

It is the first time since the 1988-89 season that the Hoyas have won eight consecutive games against conference teams.

"We are playing really well of late. Our confidence is at a high level and it shows on the court," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "We are being aggressive on defense and smart on offense. We still have a lot of things to work on but to beat high-caliber teams in our conference is a big thing."

Green scored 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting while handing out five assists and Jonathan Wallace had 14 points for the Hoyas.

"We're just playing great now. It's a lot of fun," Green said. "Everybody is helping each other. Roy and I have been scoring the last couple of games but Jonathan (Wallace), DeJuan (Summers) and Jessie (Sapp) are all playing great."

The Mountaineers (19-6, 7-5) had won five of their last six, including a huge 70-65 win over then second-ranked UCLA on Saturday.

"We just didn't shoot well at all at the start," West Virginia coach John Beilein said. "We dug a big hole for ourselves and couldn't get back in. We tried real hard but couldn't make it back.

"I don't think we overlooked this game after the UCLA win. It's awfully hard to win on the road in this conference. I was proud of our effort."

But West Virginia never mounted a run in the second half and about the only drama after the break was when Beilein went onto the court to confront Patrick Ewing Jr. after the Hoyas forward shoved Joe Alexander while Beilein was talking to him.

The incident did not amount to much, no technicals were assessed and the Hoyas went right on dominating the Mountaineers up until the final buzzer.

"I think Hillary Clinton said it takes a village, right?" Beilein said. "I was part of a village. I said, 'You don't do that.' That's all it takes."