• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Balanced attack leads Georgetown over Connecticut

Dec 30, 2008 - 5:30 AM STORRS, Connecticut (Ticker) -- Second-ranked Connecticut survived a challenging non-conference schedule unscathed, but not even that could prepare it for Big East play.

DaJuan Summers led four players in double figures with 18 points Monday as eighth-ranked Georgetown stunned the Huskies, 74-63.

Chris Wright and Greg Monroe scored 16 points apiece as the Hoyas (10-1, 1-0 Big East) jumped out to an 18-3 lead early in the first half and never trailed in the contest.

Connecticut closed the lead to three on several occasions in the second half, but a 13-4 spurt by Georgetown midway through the second 20 minutes opened up a double-digit lead the visitors would not relinquish.

"We came out ready to play," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "I told our guys, 'They make runs.' And when they made a run, we were able to stay composed, get back together and then re-group."

Austin Freeman added 13 points to help Georgetown hand Connecticut its first loss of the season in the Big East opener for both teams.

"Of all the things that could have happened tonight, I didn't expect that we would play just as poorly as we did," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "Conversely, Georgetown took full advantage of every mistake we made and did a wonderful job.

"They were well-prepared and really executed exceptionally well."

After UConn (11-1, 0-1) pulled within 49-45 thanks to six straight points by Jeff Adrien, the Hoyas went to work from the free-throw line. Georgetown converted its last 17 attempts from the charity stripe, eight during the key stretch in the second half for a 58-47 advantage.

In what was the first matchup in which both teams were ranked since the Big East championship in 1996, the Hoyas caught the home team napping from the opening tip as the Hoyas shocked the XL Center crowd.

"I felt (the lack of energy)," said A.J. Price, who led UConn with 16 points. "We just weren't as hungry as we normally are."

Summers, Monroe and Wright each sank 3-pointers in the opening six minutes and the Huskies, who captured wins over three ranked opponents before Monday's contest, found themselves in a big hole.

"I hated our body language early," Calhoun said. "For fleeting moments, liked it. And detested it in the last eight minutes. With eight minutes to go we were down, like, 12, and I didn't like looking at my team. It's the first time all year I can tell you that."

Picked seventh in the preseason Big East poll, Georgetown limited Hasheem Thabeet to a season-low four points and used its Princeton-style offense to keep the Huskies' high-scoring attack at bay.

"The commissioner is not handing out any trophies after tonight, and we have a long difficult road ahead of us," Thompson said. "It doesn't get any easier. You can't sit and dwell on this and enjoy this too much, because we have Pitt sitting there on Saturday."

The 63 points for UConn were a season low.

Thabeet did grab seven rebounds and block seven shots, but his freshman counterpart Monroe got the better of the veteran despite foul trouble.

"It was a group effort. We wanted to make sure everyone knew where he was, knew what they were trying to accomplish," Thompson said.

"He just had one of those days. Our post players worked pretty hard, and our perimeter players did a great job of helping on the weak side and trying to clog things up. It was just one of those days for him."

Jeff Adrien scored 15 points and Kemba Walker added 14 off the bench for the Huskies, who weathered the early storm to pull within nine, 36-27, at halftime.