Recap: Georgetown 89, Duke 77

Well, that was fun.

In a defense-optional affair, the Hoyas beat the Duke Blue Devils this afternoon at the Verizon Center in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicates.

And you know your blog has made the big time when the only comments you get are simply links to other blogs (that I've never heard of) from an anonymous fellow and a very recently deceased reclusive author.

Let's run the numbers:

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Home                            Visitor   
.            Georgetown                      Duke         
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            33        38        71
 
Effic.        139.8     114.0     125.8       100.3     116.7     108.9  
 
eFG%           88.6      68.8      78.3        40.7      47.1      44.4  
TO%            27.4      18.6      22.6        27.4      15.9      21.2  
OR%            20.0       8.3      11.8        50.0      42.9      45.9  
FT Rate        31.8      66.7      50.0        48.1      37.1      41.9  

Assist Rate    70.6      50.0      60.6        44.4      50.0      47.8  
Block Rate     29.4      25.0      27.3        20.0       0.0       9.1  
Steal Rate     15.2      10.6      12.7        15.2      15.9      15.6  
 
2FG%           80.0      83.3      81.8        29.4      56.2      42.4  
3FG%           71.4      16.7      46.2        40.0      26.3      31.0  
FT%           100.0      62.5      73.9        84.6      84.6      84.6

The most important line on the tempo-free box score is third from the bottom - when a team shoots better than 80% from 2FG (and take more than twice as many 2FG as 3FG in the game), the game is effectively over.

This was not a case of a team getting white-hot on their jump shots, as they shot 27 of their 33 attempts inside the arc as either dunks, layups or tip-ins (and made 23 of those).  Of course, Chris Wright's consecutive made leaning 2FG jumpers in the 1st half were probably a sign that the Hoyas weren't going to miss too many of any type.

This was the third time this season that Georgetown has passed the 70% eFG threshold for a game this season, and in fact the third straight home game where they've done it (also vs. Seton Hall and Rutgers).  Obviously, today's opponent had a slightly better ranked defense (13th) than the other two (120th and 150th, respectively) coming into the game.

A couple of the other green-highlighted numbers to note:  the Hoyas consistently contested shots today, which helped to hold down Duke's inside shooting percentage; the Blue Devils averaged less than 17% TO Rate coming into the game, so that 1st half turnover rate must have been a real shock to them.

And since I can't pass on an opportunity to spread some clouds amongst all this sunshine, Georgetown was absolutely obliterated on the glass today.  They didn't miss many shots today so it didn't matter, but that's the second consecutive game where the Hoyas gathered less than 20% of their own missed shots.

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Georgetown            Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Wright, Chris          67   15.9  151.1   16.1      69   100.8   13.9      +3.8  
Monroe, Greg           68   24.7  137.4   23.1      71   102.3   14.5      +7.2  
Freeman, Austin        68   22.1  132.5   19.9      69   105.1   14.5      +4.8  
Clark, Jason           50   11.3  142.3    8.1      52   120.2   12.5      -1.6  
Vaughn, Julian         36   21.6   98.9    7.7      36    99.0    7.1      +0.3  
Thompson, Hollis       25   14.0  128.6    4.5      25    83.3    4.2      +1.0  
Sanford, Vee            0     -     -      0.0       1     0.0    0.0      +0.0  
Benimon, Jerrelle      36   22.8   81.9    6.7      37   105.9    7.8      -1.5  
TOTALS                 70         127.3   86.0      72   103.6   74.6     +14.3  

Duke                  Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Nolan Smith            64   22.1  124.2   17.6      63   130.4   16.4      +0.1  
Kyle Singler           66   23.8  106.5   16.7      65   127.2   16.5      -1.5  
Miles Plumlee          39   17.0   80.6    5.3      40   123.1    9.8      -3.7  
Jon Scheyer            70   19.8  117.3   16.2      68   115.3   15.7      +0.4  
Lance Thomas           56   14.8  107.9    9.0      53   127.1   13.5      -3.0  
Mason Plumlee          21   13.1  127.4    3.5      20    80.0    3.2      +0.8  
Andre Dawkins          22   19.8   75.8    3.3      21   154.1    6.5      -3.3  
Ryan Kelly             17   11.8    0.0    0.0      16   129.3    4.1      -3.4  
Brian Zoubek            5   20.0    0.0    0.0       4   225.0    1.8      -2.0  
TOTALS                 72         104.2   71.6      70   125.1   87.6     -15.3

Today we saw what it looks like when all three of Georgetown's stars are playing well together.   

Chris Wright and Austin Freeman carried the brunt of the load in the Lift-off half, with a combined 8/8 2FG, 3/4 3FG, 3/3 FT shooting performance, along with 4 assists).

Greg Monroe was the star of the Vesper half, with 13 points on 4/5 2FG, 5/8 FT shooting and 3 assists, and he got a lot of help from Julian Vaughn, who shot 4/4 2FG in the second half.

Jason Clark had an efficient, low-usage offensive game while stuck with the unenviable task of chasing around Duke's best offensive player (Scheyer).  He did a fine job of limiting Scheyer;s best weapon - Duke's most productive FT shooter only had 4 attempts in the game.

If Hollis Thompson can play most games at today's level, Georgetown will become an awfully tough out.

HD BOX SCORE

Duke vs Georgetown
01/30/10 1:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Georgetown 89, Duke 77

Duke                    Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Nolan Smith            35:34  -17  19/64  4- 9  2- 7  5- 8 16/55  1/14  1/63  1/64  0/31  4/36  0/15   2
Kyle Singler           37:50  -17  18/68  1- 5  3- 9  7- 7 14/56  4/15  2/65  2/66  0/31  2/38  4/15   5
Miles Plumlee          21:30  - 8   6/43  2- 5  0- 0  2- 2  5/33  0/ 9  1/40  2/39  2/17  1/23  1/ 6   4
Jon Scheyer            38:19  -11  17/74  2- 5  3- 8  4- 4 13/61  5/17  5/68  3/70  0/31  2/40  2/17   3
Lance Thomas           32:09  - 1   8/62  3- 6  0- 0  2- 3  6/49  1/17  0/53  2/56  0/27  3/30  2/14   4
Mason Plumlee          12:25  +11   4/31  2- 3  0- 0  0- 0  3/20  0/10  2/20  1/21  1/ 9  0/ 8  3/ 8   4
Andre Dawkins          13:16  - 6   5/26  0- 0  1- 4  2- 2  4/21  0/ 5  0/21  1/22  0/11  0/15  1/ 7   2
Ryan Kelly             07:08  - 4   0/15  0- 0  0- 1  0- 0  1/14  0/ 5  0/16  1/17  0/ 5  0/ 9  1/ 3   3
Brian Zoubek           01:49  - 7   0/ 2  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 4  1/ 5  0/ 3  0/ 1  0/ 0   2
TOTALS                 40:00       77    14-33  9-29 22-26    62 11/23 11/70 15/72  3/33 17/37 15/17  29
.                                        0.424 0.310 0.846       0.478 0.157 0.208 0.091 0.459 0.882    

Georgetown              Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Wright, Chris          38:57  + 8  21/83  7- 7  1- 2  4- 5  9/43  2/22  3/69  3/67  2/33  0/17  4/40   3
Monroe, Greg           39:45  +12  21/89  7- 9  0- 2  7-10 11/46  5/26  2/71  1/68  1/33  0/17  5/40   3
Freeman, Austin        38:28  +12  20/85  6- 8  2- 3  2- 2 11/45  5/24  1/69  3/68  1/33  0/17  3/39   3
Clark, Jason           27:19  +10   9/68  3- 3  1- 2  0- 0  5/35  3/22  0/52  1/50  0/25  0/13  0/29   4
Vaughn, Julian         19:25  +10   8/45  4- 4  0- 0  0- 2  4/23  2/14  0/36  3/36  3/21  1/ 8  2/23   3
Thompson, Hollis       14:39  + 6   6/31  0- 0  2- 3  0- 0  3/15  0/ 9  2/25  1/25  1/ 8  0/ 4  2/11   3
Sanford, Vee           00:37  + 0   0/ 0  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 1  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 0  0/ 1   0
Benimon, Jerrelle      20:50  + 2   4/44  0- 2  0- 1  4- 4  3/23  3/15  1/37  3/36  1/12  0/ 9  2/17   4
TOTALS                 40:00       89    27-33  6-13 17-23    46 20/33  9/72 16/70  9/33  2/17 20/37  23
.                                        0.818 0.462 0.739       0.606 0.125 0.229 0.273 0.118 0.541    

Efficiency: Georgetown 1.271, Duke 1.069
eFG%: Georgetown 0.783, Duke 0.444
Substitutions: Georgetown 17, Duke 24

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Georgetown 5-5, Duke 2-2
Layups/Tips: Georgetown 18-22, Duke 10-18
Jumpers: Georgetown 4-6, Duke 2-13

Fast break pts (% FG pts): Georgetown 20 (27.8), Duke 6 (10.9)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Georgetown 16 (177.8), Duke 15 (136.4)
Seconds per poss: Georgetown 18.2, Duke 15.9

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Stats pages will be updated tomorrow.