Hoyas have crowd of 3s in victory

DAVIDSON, N.C. — In the history of Georgetown’s storied program, the Hoyas never have shot like this.

Georgetown set a school record with 16 3-pointers and trounced Davidson 76-51 last night before 2,726 at Belk Arena.

“If we take the kind of shots we should take and if we take the kind of 3s off the right kind of motion and the right movement, I think we have guys that can knock them down,” said coach John Thompson III, who won his first road game at Georgetown (2-1).

Thompson was talking about guys like walk-on freshman guard Jonathan Wallace, who connected on six of eight 3s and fell one shy of tying Mark Tillmon’s single-game record. Wallace finished with a career-high 20 points.

Five other Hoyas made at least two 3-pointers: forward Brandon Bowman (three), senior swingman Darrel Owens (two), freshman forward Jeff Green (two) and guard Ashanti Cook (three). Thirty-one of Georgetown’s 47 shots last night were 3s.

“[The 3-pointers are] like bolts of lightning. Once they strike, it sends shivers into you,” said Wildcats coach Bob McKillop, whose team went 13-0 at home last season. “They did a superb job. They either shot a 3, or they shot a backdoor layup.”

Most of the talk about Georgetown’s newcomers entering the season focused on 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert and Green, a 6-9 forward who finished with 13 points, a game-high seven rebounds and a game-high seven assists last night.

But it was the unheralded Wallace who made the difference, something that had to surprise the Wildcats (2-3). Even though Wallace, whom Georgetown discovered in the summer Kenner League at McDonough Arena, started the season-opening loss to Temple, his previous career high was just three points from that game against the Owls.

Wallace helped Georgetown pull away in the first half with 14 points, including four of six 3-pointers against a 2-3 zone that dared the Hoyas to shoot from the outside. He hit one 3 early in the game as the shot clock sounded, but his most injurious blow came 15 seconds before halftime when he nailed a 20-footer at the top of the key to give Georgetown a commanding 35-24 halftime lead.

All this came against a team that entered the game holding its opponents to 27.3 percent 3-point shooting, the best in the Southern Conference.

“He has a lovely jump shot,” Cook said of Wallace.

Cook picked up for Wallace in the second half by scoring all of his 17 points in the final 20 minutes, and Bowman finished with 16 points and six rebounds.

In Friday’s win over The Citadel, the Hoyas tied the school record for 3-pointers in a game with 12, and they used the outside shot to open a gap again last night. Neither team led by more than two for the first 13 minutes, but the Hoyas outscored the Wildcats 25-12 the remainder of the first half.