45

Final 1 2 Tot High Point 16 29 45 Georgetown 28 52 80

80

9:00 ET, Dec 5, 2013 Verizon Center, Washington, District of Columbia  Attendance: 4,676

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Georgetown rolls over High Point 80-45

WASHINGTON (AP) For the second game in row the Georgetown Hoyas watched a mid-major opponent stick around for 20 minutes before putting them away in the second half.

Markel Starks is tired of it.

Starks scored 18 points and D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera added 17, and Georgetown pulled away early in the second half for an 80-45 win over High Point Thursday night.

Joshua Smith contributed 11 points for the Hoyas (5-2), who led by 12 at intermission in winning their fourth straight.

"Obviously some words were exchanged in the locker room going into to halftime," Markel said after the teams managed just seven points apiece in the final 10:53 of the first half.

"But we have to snap out of that. First half it's like (we're) dragging, the second half OK, now they look like the Hoyas. We've got to get out that. Because we have that ability. We can start and finish games on a high note."

Georgetown scored the first 10 points of the second half in the first-ever meeting between the schools and led by as many as 40 points.

The Hoyas took better advantage of their size after intermission, scoring 30 points in the paint.

"We thought they were going to play us a lot of zone and we wanted to try to make a conscious effort of going inside," coach John Thompson III said.

The Big South Conference Panthers (3-4) were led by Jorge Perez-Laham's 10 points.

"They started off shooting the ball really well against us, but we withstood that and I thought we put ourselves in position to be within striking distance," High Point coach Scott Cherry said.

"But then we came out second half and just didn't play well the first four minutes. Gave up some easy baskets, let them shoot 62 percent in the second half. Can't do that to win on the road. Not against a Big East opponent."

Starks scored five quick points on a layup and 3-pointer to open the second half. Smith added a three-point play and Nate Lubick's hook shot made it 38-16 two minutes in.

The Panthers turned the ball over on three of their first four second-half possessions.

High Point was without starter Allan Chaney, who missed his second game since collapsing on the court during the team's Nov. 24 game against Wofford. Cherry said after the game Chaney is still undergoing medical evaluation.

Perez-Laham's 3-pointer cut the High Point deficit to 40-23, but Georgetown went on a 15-2 run keyed by 10 points from Smith-Rivera.

The Hoyas tied a season-high with 10 three pointers, shooting 55.2 percent (32 of 58) from the field, including 41.7 percent from 3-point range.

The Panthers hit just 16 of 57 shots (28.1 percent), including 3 of 21 from beyond the arc.

John Brown, who came in averaging 21.7 points for High Point, was held to eight points.

"They ran three or four guys at him and other guys have to step up and make plays," Cherry said.

Georgetown was content to shoot over High Point's zone and it paid off early on. The Hoyas made their first five shots, including three 3-pointers, and Smith's dunk made it 13-4 four minutes in.

Georgetown cooled off, but the Panthers didn't take advantage. High Point began play shooting 51 percent from the field, but made just 5 of 27 shots in the first half.

"I think sometimes people think you're going to throw the ball up and all of a sudden the score is going to be 20 to nothing, but they're here to compete," Thompson said. "To that end we did have a stretch where we started off the first half and scored on our first five possessions and then it felt like we didn't score for quite some time. Our execution was not where it needs to be."

Georgetown improved to 13-0 against Big South schools.

Updated December 6, 2013