Hoyas Take a Bite Out of the Orange

The Georgetown Hoyas, behind 21 points from DaJuan Summers, built an 18-point halftime lead and walloped their arch-rival, the Syracuse Orange, by a score of 88-74 in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Playing in front of a packed house, including Sen. John McCain and former Hoyas coach John Thompson II, the Georgetown players were ready from the get-go. The sight of orange-colored jerseys made them see another color.

Red.

And to Georgetown’s credit, they went for blood early and often.

Yesterday, I wrote an article detailing seven factors which Syracuse needed to have work in their favor to emerge victorious. Let’s review their performance in those critical areas.

Get a great game from Jonny Flynn

While Flynn (16 points, nine assists) played significantly better in the second half, the first 20 minutes were not his finest hour. In fact, very early on after a questionable fast break pass, Flynn found himself getting an earful from Jim Boeheim on the Syracuse bench.

But in the first half, when Georgetown was building a 20-point lead, the Orange didn’t have Flynn’s poise and decision making to help weather the storm.

Keep the crowd from being a factor

The Georgetown fans were loud and exuberant all game. The stellar play of their team gave them reason to be.

And when the Hoyas doubled Syracuse 34-17, the noise from the fans was as loud as it was all evening.

Force the Hoyas bench to contribute

The premise being that if Syracuse could play well enough defensively, then Georgetown’s bench, which hasn’t been its strength all year, would be forced into a position they’re unaccustomed to.

Not only did the starters play well, scoring 59 of the 88 points, but the bench was as productive as it has been all season long.

Normally the Georgetown reserves average 12 points per game. Against Syracuse, they erupted for 29, highlighted by 12 points from Jason Clark in 20 minutes of action.

Contain Greg Monroe

While the freshman sensation only scored 10 points, he did lead the team with seven rebounds.

But it was Monroe’s passing (six assists to lead the team) and ball movement against the zone that helped Georgetown run their offense extremely effectively as the Hoyas shot 59.3 percent from the field.

And just for good measure, Monroe had three blocked shots.

Don’t let them makes threes

This is where Syracuse had their biggest defensive breakdown of the game.

The Hoyas got open look after open look as they sank 12 of 20 triples for a whopping 60 percent from behind the arc.

Of those 12 threes, the bench sank five of their six attempts.

Georgetown shot the ball so well from the perimeter in the first half that Syracuse switched out of their customary 2-3 zone to play man-to-man.

Keep them off the free throw line

The Hoyas, when they weren’t sinking threes, carved their way through the zone or blew by their men to get to the rim just enough as they took 18 free throw attempts.

Fortunately for the Orange, Georgetown only made 11 of their attempts (61.1 percent) or the outcome would’ve been worse.

Rebound the ball

The final numbers show that Syracuse out-rebounded the Hoyas 31-24, including 15 on the offensive end but that doesn’t paint an accurate portrait.

The Hoyas dominated the glass in the first half, which helped them build their lead, and, for all intents and purposes, put the game away.

Syracuse, needing to play catch-up, was much more aggressive rebounding the ball in the second half.

There were other factors that contributed to the Hoyas victory.

Syracuse was awful from the free throw line missing 13 of their 21 attempts.

Sophomore Rick Jackson was the biggest culprit as he sank only one of eight free throws.

Junior Andy Rautins played only nine minutes and went scoreless after he banged knees with sophomore Nikita Mescheriakov.

Syracuse held him out of the remainder of the game as a precautionary measure. The knee Rautins injured was the same one in which he had his ACL surgically repaired. As a result of the surgery, he missed all of last season.

Monroe’s smooth passing skills were contagious among the Hoyas as Georgetown recorded assists on 23 of their 32 field goals. When a team shares the ball that well, good things happen as a result.

With Syracuse trailing by such a large margin in the second half, they resorted to pressing the Hoyas. Georgetown broke the press with ease far too many times and found themselves with easy layups which contributed to their high percentage of made baskets and assists.

Eric Devendorf lead the Orange with 20 points off the bench. Paul Harris (13 points, 11 boards) recorded another double-double, while Rick Jackson poured in 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting and hauled down seven rebounds.

Syracuse next plays Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome versus Notre Dame (noon, ESPN).

If the Orange are to win, they need to shore up their perimeter defense, as Notre Dame leads the Big East in three-point shooting at 41.5 percent.

But this night clearly belonged to the Hoyas.

Welcome to the Big East.