Dec. 29, 2005

Box Score

Washington, D.C. - Senior Darrel Owens (Napoleonville, La./Assumption) scored a season-high 21 points and Georgetown tied a season-high with 12 three-pointers en route to a 76-64 win over the University of Texas-El Paso, capturing the Sun Bowl Tournament Championship on Wednesday night at the Don Haskins Center in Texas.

It was the fifth-straight win for Hoyas, who improve to 8-2 overall, while the Miners fall to 7-3. Owens, who was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player, was joined on the All-Tournament team by senior Brandon Bowman (Santa Monica, Calif./Westchester).

Georgetown has opened a four-point lead midway through the first half, but the Miners, playing in front of a home crowd of 11,010 fans, pulled to within a point on two occasions, the last when John Tofi hit a layup with 6:30 left in the first half to make it a 20-19 game. Like Tuesday night's win over Colgate, however, the Hoyas scored 12-straight points, this time taking a 32-19 lead.

The Hoyas used the long distance shot to open the lead, with a trey from sophomore guard Jonathan Wallace (Harvest, Ala./Sparkman) starting the run. Owens, who has been a spark off the bench for Georgetown, took care of the rest. He hit three-straight three-pointers and Georgetown outscored UTEP 12-0 over a 4:35 span.

Georgetown led by 13 points, 36-23, at halftime after Bowman hit a jumper with three seconds left in the half.

In the second half, Tofi's layup with 16:57 to play pulled UTEP to within eight points, 38-30, but Owens responded again, hitting the fourth of his five three-pointers, to give Georgetown a 41-30 lead with 16:36 left to play. Another three - this one from senior Ashanti Cook (Inglewood, Calif./Westchester) - and a basket from senior Amadou Kilkenny-Diaw (Washington, D.C./St. Alban's) gave the Hoyas a 46-30 lead with 14:27 left to play.

The Miners would again pull to within eight points, 56-48, on a basket from Edgar Moreno, but the Hoyas scored six-straight points - two apiece from Bowman, Owens and Cook - and the lead grew to 14 points, 62-48, with 3:39 to play. Georgetown connected on 12-of-17 free throws in the final three minutes to seal the win.

Owens missed only one of his 11 shots on the night - connecting on 6-of-6 from the field, 5-of-5 from three-point land and 4-of-5 from the free throw line - for a game-high 21 points to go with three assists and two steals. He led five players in double figures as Bowman added 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists and Wallace added 13 points, four rebounds and four assists. Cook finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists and sophomore Jeff Green (Hyattsville, Md./Northwestern) added 10 points, two rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. The Hoyas connected on 57.8 percent of their field goals (26-of-45), hit a season-high 60.0 percent of their three-pointers (12-of-20 and 63.2 percent of their free throws (12-of-19). Georgetown handed out 19 assists for the second-straight game.

Georgetown is off until Thursday, Jan. 5, when they open BIG EAST Conference play against Providence at the MCI Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the game can be heard live on SportsTalk 980 AM.