POSTED: 8:47 pm CST January 4, 2012
Jason Clark scored 26 points, and Hollis Thompson's tiebreaking 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left capped a comeback from a 17-point deficit, helping No. 9 Georgetown beat No. 20 Marquette 73-70 on Wednesday night.The Hoyas (13-1, 3-0 Big East) ran their winning streak to 11 games, their longest in five years. They got 16 points from Thompson, 13 from Henry Sims, and key contributions from four freshmen who played significant minutes in the second half.Marquette (12-3, 1-1) lost for the third time in five games, despite 18 points from Darius Johnson-Odom, 17 from Jae Crowder, and 16 from Todd Mayo.The Golden Eagles led 43-29 at halftime and stretched that to 56-39 on Mayo's 3-pointer with 13:10 left. But Clark brought Georgetown back, making 6 of 7 shots in the second half, when he scored 18 points.With starters Sims and Thompson sitting with three fouls each in the second half, Georgetown went with a lineup of freshmen Jabril Trawick, Otto Porter, Greg Whittington and Mikael Hopkins, along with senior guard Clark. Something clicked, because the Hoyas starting chipping away at that big deficit.Clark did most of the scoring, including a 3-pointer and a three-point play. And when Sims went back in and made 1 of 2 free throws, then assisted on Porter's backdoor cut for a layup, suddenly Marquette's lead was down to 62-57 with a little more than 7 minutes remaining.It helped that Marquette went cold for a stretch, going more than 7½ minutes between field goals.When Thompson swished a 3, the Hoyas were only down 66-64, and his fallaway baseline jumper tied it. After yet another Marquette turnover, Sims' layup put Georgetown ahead 68-66 with a little more than 2 minutes to go. After the teams traded scores, the game was tied at 70-all when Thompson made his biggest shot of the game.Johnson-Odom and Crowder both got late looks at potential tying 3s, but both missed.Both of these teams entered Wednesday holding opponents under 39 percent shooting this season, but the offenses dictated things in the early going.The Hoyas made their first six shots - the first miss came 5 minutes in, on a 3-point try by Markel Starks - and the Golden Eagles opened 8 of 10 (80 percent).For Georgetown, in particular, that represented quite an improvement from its previous game, a 49-40 victory over Providence in which the Hoyas kept getting good looks at the basket and kept misfiring, ending up at 30.5 percent.Wednesday's success on offense didn't last long, though. Georgetown started missing shots - and taking bad ones - and went more than 6½ minutes in the second half without a field goal. After one rather egregious attempt - 6-foot-10 center Sims' jumper from near the top of the arc - Hoyas coach John Thompson III put his palms up and yelled something at the senior.That came during a 14-1 run by Marquette, which went from trailing by a point to leading 37-25 with 2 minutes left in the first half. Johnson-Odom and Mayo each scored six points during that stretch. Marquette's lead grew as large as 16 points in the first half.The Golden Eagles scored inside seemingly at will at times, often getting unchallenged looks at the basket, and outscored the Hoyas 22-8 in the paint during the first half. Add in another 10 points off turnovers, and it was easy to see why Marquette took control early.There was a scary moment about 5 ½ minutes into the game, when Marquette's Jamil Wilson tumbled on top of Georgetown's Starks and both stayed down on the court for a couple of minutes. Eventually, Wilson walked to the sideline and returned to action shortly. Starks wobbled a bit as he was helped up, then was helped off the court, but he returned later in the first half, too.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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