No. 16 Georgetown dispatches Memphis
WASHINGTON — Jason Clark scored 18 points and Hollis Thompson added 17 as No. 16 Georgetown beat Memphis 70-59 Thursday night.
Georgetown (10-1) extended its winning streak to eight games. The Hoyas held the lead for the entire game and opened the margin to as much as 20 points before a late surge by Memphis, although the Tigers were unable to complete the comeback.
Chris Crawford scored 17 and Will Barton had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Memphis, which has lost three of its last four games.
The teams were playing a rare regular-season, nonconference rematch. Georgetown, unranked at the time, defeated then-No. 8 Memphis 91-88 in overtime in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational on Nov. 23. The roles were reversed for this contest, with the Hoyas holding the national ranking.
Georgetown didn’t need overtime to sweep the season series, taking control with runs to close out the first half and open the second. The Hoyas closed the opening period with a 6-0 run in the final 1 1/2 minutes, capped by Henry Sims’ massive fast-break dunk with seven seconds left.
Georgetown came out after halftime and simply overwhelmed Memphis. Thompson’s 3-pointer about 45 seconds in pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time — 40-28 — and the margin kept growing.
The Hoyas scored the first seven points of the half before Crawford converted a three-point play with 17:58 left. Georgetown answered with another 7-0 run.
The Hoyas built the lead to 54-34, outscoring Memphis 19-6 over the first 8 minutes of the second half.
Instead of accepting the blowout once they were down 20, the Tigers came alive, using a 13-2 run to cut the lead to 58-49 with 8 1/2 minutes to play. The deficit proved too large for Memphis to overcome, however, as Georgetown held off the Tigers’ surge.
The Hoyas’ defense seemed to have Memphis off-balance from the start of the game. The Tigers had four turnovers on their first seven possessions, and turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, finishing with 18.
Georgetown started strong, opening up a nine-point lead about 8 minutes into the game. The Hoyas seemed to be on the brink of building a much larger lead when Greg Whittington was called for the first of two offensive fouls in the space of 2 minutes — the second one deemed flagrant — and the Tigers took back the momentum.
Memphis tied the game at 23 with 7 minutes left in the first half, but was unable to move ahead.
Georgetown went into the half with a 35-28 lead.