Georgetown opens Big East play with an upset of UConn

HARTFORD, Conn. -- There are going to be quite a few games this season between ranked Big East teams.

The first of them was a shocker in that the young visiting team came away with a convincing victory over a veteran team playing at home.

DaJuan Summers scored 18 points and Georgetown (No. 8 ESPN/USA Today, No. 11 AP) beat No. 2 Connecticut 74-63 on Monday night for its seventh straight win.

"The commissioner isn't handing out trophies tonight and it doesn't get easier," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said, referring to Saturday's home game against No. 3 Pittsburgh.

That game can't look as daunting after beating the Huskies at the XL Center.

"We can't get too high because we have Pitt on Saturday," Summers said. "We're where we're supposed to be and we have a lot of work to do, so we can't get comfortable."

Chris Wright and freshman Greg Monroe both had 16 points for Georgetown (10-1, 1-0), and Austin Freeman added 13.

A.J. Price had 16 points and Jeff Adrien added 15 for the Huskies (11-1, 0-1), who cut a 12-point deficit early in the second half to three twice but couldn't get any closer.

The Hoyas opened the game on an 18-3 run by hitting four of their first five 3-point attempts, then held off Connecticut by making 18 straight free throws in the second half to finish 18-for-21 from the line.

"I hated our body language early, saw some brief spurts, then detested it the last eight minutes," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "I'm in a state of shock, I really am. To have a home game in the conference opener against a rival like Georgetown and not be excited -- there was no reason not to be excited. I don't know what team I was coaching tonight."

It was the Hoyas' eighth straight victory in a Big East opener, the last five under Thompson.

Georgetown's only loss this season was to Tennessee in the semifinals of the Old Spice Classic.

The loss snapped Connecticut's seven-game winning streak over ranked opponents, including victories this season over Miami, Wisconsin and Gonzaga.

This was the first time both teams were ranked when they met since the 1996 Big East tournament championship game when Connecticut, led by Ray Allen, beat Georgetown, led by Allen Iverson.

The Big East has seven schools ranked in The Associated Press Top 25.

Monroe hit his second 3 of the game 13 seconds into the second half to put Georgetown up 39-27. The Huskies went on a 14-1 run to get within three points for the first time.

The 6-foot-11 Monroe, playing with three personal fouls, stopped the run with a hook shot over 7-3 Hasheem Thabeet to make it 42-37 with 14:05 left. Stanley Robinson made two free throws to make it a three-point game again and then Freeman took over, scoring seven of the first nine points in a 14-6 run that got Georgetown's lead back in double digits, 56-45, with 9:46 to go.

Connecticut was never closer than nine points the rest of the way and the Hoyas led by as many as 17.

"We knew they would make a run and we had to withstand it," Summers said.

Thompson said he told the team during a second-half timeout that a run was coming.

"To hold on in this environment when it got close was big," Thompson said. "We made plays at both ends to do it."

Georgetown opened an 18-3 lead in the game's first 6 minutes, hitting seven of its first 10 shots from the field while the Huskies started 0-for-4 and turned it over five times in that span.

The numbers had to start evening out and they did as Connecticut picked up the defensive intensity.

The Huskies got within four twice but Wright hit two tough shots in the final 1:03 for a personal 4-1 run that gave the Hoyas a 36-27 lead.

"It was exciting and it was pretty hostile," Wright said. "It was a Big East game."

Thabeet finished with four points on 2-of-4 shooting and had seven blocked shots.

"Today they got us," Thabeet said. "We just have to look forward to the next game."