No. 5 Pitt beats slumping No. 22 Georgetown 72-57
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Ashton Gibbs hit five 3-pointers and scored 22 points, and No. 5 Pittsburgh broke open the game early Wednesday night and remained unbeaten in the Big East with a 72-57 win over No. 22 Georgetown.
Brad Wanamaker added 14 points and Gilbert Brown had 12 for the Panthers, who shot 58 percent in the first half to build a 17-point halftime lead, the school's largest in a Big East road game. Pitt (16-1, 4-0) has won six straight overall.
Chris Wright scored 14 points for the slumping Hoyas (12-5, 1-4), who have lost three straight and are off to their worst conference start since 1998-99. Georgetown was let down by poor defense, poor free throw shooting and yet another off night from senior leaders Wright and Austin Freeman.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Pitt took advantage of Georgetown's interior defense to score all seven of its baskets in the paint during the first 8 minutes of the second half. The Hoyas made only four of 14 free throws in the first half — generating boos from the faithful — and 14 of 25 for the game. Wright and Freeman were non-factors in the first half, with Wright spending much time on the bench after committing two fouls in a 7-second span and Freeman shooting 2 for 7.
Freeman finished with 12 points, and Julian Vaughn scored 13. The Hoyas' share-the-ball Princeton offense generated only one assist in the first 12 minutes and just five in the entire game.
Georgetown didn't have a run longer than 4-0 until late in the game, when it went to a full-court press and rolled off seven straight points to cut an 18-point lead to 11 with 5 minutes remaining. Gibbs answered with a 3-pointer, and the game slowed to a crawl in a second half that included 26 fouls. Pitt went 9 for 12 from the line over the final 4 minutes, enough to keep the Hoyas from cutting the lead to single digits.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
The Panthers took control in the first half with a 15-2 run, highlighted by three 3-pointers from Gibbs and a pair of fast-break layups to build a 24-9 lead.