• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Sapp, trademark defense propel Georgetown to win

Feb 24, 2008 - 12:58 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Jessie Sapp scored 16 points and Roy Hibbert added 12 and five blocked shots to power No. 11 Georgetown past Cincinnati, 73-53, in Big East Conference action on Saturday.

Freshman Austin Freeman contributed 13 points for the Hoyas (22-4, 12-3 Big East), who stand alone atop the conference standings one-half game ahead of idle Louisville. The Cardinals will play at Pittsburgh on Sunday.

After Adam Hrycaniuk scored the first four points of the game for Cincinnati, Georgetown responded with 10 unanswered points to claim a lead it did not relinquish.

The Bearcats (13-13, 8-6) scored the next five points to close to within 10-9 at the 11:30 mark of the first half, but the Hoyas used a 22-9 run over the next 9:03 to establish a 32-18 advantage with just over two minutes remaining before intermission.

Hibbert, who blocked a season-high six shots in Monday's win over Providence, had four in the first half alone.

Cincinnati answered with a 11-2 run that carried over into the second half courtesy of Deonta Vaughn, who hit two 3-pointers in the final 1:56 of the first half to cut the Hoyas' halftime lead to 34-27. The Bearcats hit six of their final nine field goal attempts in the half.

Even though Cincinnati scored the first basket of the second half to narrow the deficit to 34-29 less than a minute in, Georgetown - which is among the national leaders in scoring defense and opponent's field goal percentage - locked down Cincinnati for a significant portion from that point on - holding the Bearcats to 17 points over the next 17 minutes.

The Bearcats missed nine of their first 11 shots from the field and did not make their third field goal until 7:23 remained in the half. Cincinnati shot just 33 percent (8-of-24) in the second half.

While the Bearcats were struggling to score points of any kind, Sapp had no such problems, contributing six of the next 10 points for the Hoyas to help them regain their double-digit lead at 44-33 with 14:14 remaining.

The onslaught continued as Georgetown pushed the lead out to 25 points with 2:11 remaining at 71-46 before Cincinnati hit five free throws late to account for the final margin.

Vaughn and John Williamson each scored 13 points for Cincinnati, which suffered its worst lost of the season.