Wright Tallies 24 to Lead Hoyas over Louisville

College Hoops Player of the Day for Monday, January 31, 2011

College basketball - like all sports - has its highs and lows, but Georgetown senior guard Chris Wright has really been on a roller coaster ride over the past two games.

In Saturday's 69-66 win at Villanova, Wright spent 30 minutes on the court, but hoisted only three shots, missing all of them and finished the game with zero points. It was the first time he'd been held scoreless since the Big East tournament in 2008, when he was a freshman.

Back on his home court on Monday, Wright's fortune changed dramatically, as he led the Hoyas to their fifth straight win, a frenzied 62-59 victory over #15 Louisville, with a game high 24 points and a personal season high point total. Wright hoisted 14 shots, made eight of them and went 8-for-8 from the foul line, adding five boards and three assists.

Louisville came back from an 11-point deficit in the second half to briefly take a late lead, but Wright's diving scoop shot and Hollis Thompson's three-pointer put the Hoyas ahead until Wright made two free throws with 4.4 seconds remaining to ice the contest.

Georgetown, ranked #13 nationally, is just 5-4 in the Big East, caught in a traffic jam with eight other teams between 6-3 and 5-4. They are all desperately chasing 8-1 Pitt, though the feeling is that the Panthers won't survive the remainder of their season without at least one more loss.

The Hoyas are off until Saturday, when they host a dangerous, but unranked, Providence squad.

Hoyas Shoot 72%, Hammer Blue Devils

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Georgetown Hoyas put on a shooting clinic at the Verizon Center Sunday, hitting 33 of 46 shots from the field, for an impressive 71.7% effort as they cruised to an 89-77 win over Duke.

While the Hoyas were hitting just about everything from everywhere, the Blue Devils were trying their best to stay in the game. After a first half run, the Hoyas took command, heading into the break with a 46-33 lead. Duke cut that to six, but that was the closest they would get, as Georgetown players just kept making their shots. Other than the shooting, Georgetown wasn't all that special. They were outrebounded by Duke, 32-22, and turned the ball over 15 times, one more than Duke. They did, though, manage to block 9 shots, and 20 of the 33 baskets came off assists.

Shooting the lights out were a trio of Georgetown players: Austin Freeman (8 of 11, 2-3 3-pointers, 20 points); Chris Wright (8 of 9, 1-2 3-pointers, 21 points); and, super soph center Greg Monroe (7 of 11, 21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists).

The Hoyas, taking a break from the rigors of the Big East, got into Duke's psyche and bolstered their own resume, improving to 16-4 on the season. Duke, despite the loss, is 17-4 and will likely still be ranked in the Top 10 come Monday.

Notable: Of 14 games involving Top 25 teams Saturday, 4 of them went into overtime. The two biggest were in the Big 12, where #2 Kansas withstood the Kansas St. challenge, winning 81-79, while in Austin, the Baylor Bears upset Texas, 80-77, hanging the Longhorns with their third loss in two weeks.

The other two OT games produced wins by unranked teams, as San Francisco toppled #13 Gonzaga, 81-77, and unheralded UTEP outscored #25 UAB 11-2 in the second overtime for a 74-65 win.

Wright, Hoyas Hand Pitt 1st Big East Defeat

College Hoops Player of the Day for DAY, Month, 2010

There are just too many good teams in the Big East to think that any one of them will go through the conference schedule without tasting defeat, and probably more than once.

Such was the case on Wednesday night, when the Georgetown Hoyas stormed into Pittsburgh's Petersen Events Center and stopped the Panthers' 31-game home win streak and 5-0 Big East start with an important 74-66 road win. Led, as they often are, by point guard Chris Wright's game-high 27 points, Georgetown broke a second-half 56-all tie with a 7-0 run and never allowed the Panthers closer than 6 after that.

Wright went 11-for-17 from the field, including hitting all 3 of his 3-point attempts and going 2-for-2 from the foul line. He also added 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal while outplaying his counterpart, Pitt's Ashton Gibbs, who was just 3-for-16 and 2 of 8 from beyond the arc for 8 points.

Pitt's loss left Villanova alone atop the Big East, at 6-0, followed by 5-1 Syracuse and Pitt. Georgetown improved to 5-2, good for sole possession of 4th place in the conference standings.

Notable: #3 Kansas staved off a determined effort by Baylor for an 81-75 win. Sherron Collins all but sealed the deal when he hit his 5th 3-pointer of the game with 1:13 left, giving KU a 5-point lead. Collins finished with a game-high 28 points, closely followed by Baylor's LaceDarius Dunn, who scored 27 and also canned 5 3-pointers. Dunn, who leads Baylor at 19.5 points per game, grabbed 9 boards to go with 2 assists and 4 steals.

Duke and North Carolina both lost on the same night, the first time that's happened since 2003, though it appears it could happen again sooner rather than later, especially with a slew of injuries plaguing the Tar Heels. Carolina was mangled, 82-69, by visiting Wake Forest (13-4, 3-2), probably the best unranked team in the country. Duke had its own problems at NC State, as the Blue Devils were spanked by the Wildcats, 88-74. North Carolina is 1-3 in ACC play; Duke's conference record is 3-2.

Wright Lights up Crimson with 34 in Georgetown Win

College Hoops Player of the Day for Wednesday, December 23, 2009

After losing their first game of the season, to unheralded Old Dominion, 61-57, on Saturday, the Georgetown Hoyas weren't about to drop a home game to Harvard, even though the Crimson seemed to have other ideas, keeping the game tight through most of the first half. Georgetown got a career-high 34 points out of Junior guard Chris Wright, extending a 44-33 halftime lead to a thorough thumping of their Ivy League foe for an 86-70 win. Wright, who hit 13 of 21 shots from the field, including 2 of 5 3-pointers, took over all aspects of the game with 4 assists, 6 rebounds and 6 steals in 35 minutes of playing time. Teammate Greg Monroe, who's quickly turning into an NBA prospect with his low post domination, doubled down with 16 points and 16 boards.

The Hoyas improved to 9-1 in their final tuneup before beginning Big East play, when they host St. John's on New Year's Eve.

NOTABLE: The number of undefeated teams continues to dwindle, with New Mexico the latest to feel the first sting of defeat. The Lobos met their match at Oral Roberts; the Golden Eagles unceremoniously dumping on them, 75-66. The Lobos are 12-1 and still off to their best start since 1973. Their loss leaves six undefeated teams: Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Purdue and West Virginia. Kentucky is the first team with 13 wins, followed by Syracuse with 12, Kansas, Texas and Purdue at 11-0. West Virginia is 9-0.