Dec. 28, 2005

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Washington, D.C. - Sophomore center Roy Hibbert (Adelphi, Md./Georgetown Prep) scored a game-high 18 points and Georgetown outscored Colgate 23-8 over the final 11:03 en route to a 61-45 win over the Raiders in first round action of the Sun Bowl Tournament in El Paso, Texas Tuesday night. The win was the fourth-straight for Georgetown, as the Hoyas improved to 7-2 overall, while Colgate falls to 5-7.

Georgetown advances to play the host University of Texas-El Paso in the championship game of the tournament on Wednesday night. The Miners beat Mississippi Valley State, 74-58, in Tuesday's first game.

After leading by two points at halftime, 25-23, sophomore guard Jonathan Wallace (Harvest, Ala./Sparkman) hit back-to-back three-pointers to start the second half, extending the Hoya lead to eight points, 31-23, with 17:36 left to play.

Twice in the next minutes, however, Colgate pulled to within one point. A layup from Peter Minchella at 12:26 made it a 36-35 Georgetown lead, and a basket from Kyle Roemer pulled the Raiders to within 38-37 with 11:03 remaining in the game.

That was as close as Colgate would get. Georgetown scored the next 12 points over a 3:51 span, taking a 50-37 lead after a layup from senior Brandon Bowman (Santa Monica, Calif./Westchester). Bowman started the run with a three-pointer with 10:48 to play and 35 seconds later, Wallace found sophomore guard Tyler Crawford (Staunton, Va./Robert E. Lee) alone on the wing for another three. Hibbert added a jumper and two free throws during the run.

Georgetown's biggest lead, 61-43, came on a Hibbert dunk with 2:07 to play in the game.

The Hoyas had jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, with Hibbert hitting two shots and Bowman adding another in the first three minutes of the game. The lead grew to 10 points, 16-6, on a three-pointer from senior guard Ashanti Cook (Inglewood, Calif./Westchester) with 11:28 to play in the first half before Colgate used a trio of three-pointers, the last from Jon Foss, to pull within three-points, 18-15, with 9:17 to play in the opening frame. Another Colgate three, this one from Dan Gentile, tied the game at 21-all, but a Hibbert basket with 21 seconds left in the half gave the Hoyas a 25-23 lead at the break.

Hibbert connected on all of his shots - 8-of-8 from the field and 2-of-2 from the free throw line - to score a game-high 18 points to go with five rebounds and three blocked shots. Bowman finished with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists in a balanced Georgetown lineup. Wallace scored nine points - hitting all three of his three-point attempts - handed out five assists and had three rebounds; Cook added eight points and three rebounds; senior Darrel Owens (Napoleonville, La./Assumption) added six points and four assists; sophomore forward Jeff Green (Hyattsville, Md./Northwestern) added five points and five assists; and Crawford finished with five points. Georgetown connected on 53.5 percent of its field goals (23-of-43), 47.6 percent of its three-pointers (10-21, including seven of the first eight in the second half) and shot 62.5 percent from the free throw line (5-of-8). The Hoyas handed out 19 assists and had only seven turnovers.

Georgetown's game against UTEP is slated to tip off at 9:30 p.m. ET and the game can be heard on AM 1260, with Rich Chvotkin calling the action.