March 21, 2008
Raleigh, N.C. - Senior center Roy Hibbert (Adelphi, Md./Georgetown Prep) finished with 13 points and seven rebounds to lead No. 2 seed Georgetown past No. 15 seed UMBC, 66-47, Friday afternoon in the first round of the Midwest Region held at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C. The win was also the 100th of Head Coach John Thompson III's tenure at Georgetown. Senior guard Jonathan Wallace (Harvest, Ala./Sparkman) added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists while freshman Austin Freeman (Mitchellville, Md./DeMatha) finished with 11 for the Hoyas (28-5). Senior forward Patrick Ewing, Jr. (Marietta, Ga./National Christian Academy [Md.]) added 10 points while occasionally playing center when Hibbert was out for the Hoyas. Georgetown shot 51 percent, their fourth straight win in which they've shot over 50 percent from the floor, and held UMBC to 32 percent shooting for the contest. The Blue and Gray also kept the Retrievers scoreless for a 7-minute stretch of the first half. GU held UMBC's leading scorer, Ray Barbosa, to six points--nearly 11 below his average--on 2-of-11 shooting. UMBC stayed with Georgetown for the first 10 minutes of the contest before the Hoyas took control with a 22-5 run late in the first half that overwhelmed the Retrievers. The Big East's stingiest defense forced UMBC into eight straight misses-- including five three-pointers--during its dry spell late in the half, and took a 14-point lead when freshman guard Chris Wright's (Bowie, Md./St. John's Catholic (D.C.)) three-pointer from the left corner made it 31-17 with about three minutes left before the break. Barbosa finally snapped the drought with long-range shot at 1:07, but Wright drained a three-pointer from the left corner that beat the halftime buzzer. That shot pushed the lead into double figures, where it would stay for the rest of the game as UMBC fell behind by as many as 21 in the second stanza. The Hoyas have now won their last four NCAA Tournament First Round games dating back to 2000-01.
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