Georgetown Serves Notice

The Georgetown Hoyas beat the best team in what is arguably the best conference in the country this season.

And they did it with defense.

Georgetown’s frenetic full-court press held junior Ray Allen to a season-low 13 points and broke Connecticut’s 23-game winning streak, as the 11th-ranked Hoyas dominated the No. 3 Huskies, 77-65, before a sellout crowd of 19,035 at the USAir Arena Monday night.

In the only regular-season meeting between the two Big East rivals this season, Georgetown (22-6, 11-4) gave Connecticut (24-2, 14-1) its first conference loss and its first overall since a Nov. 24 overtime defeat to Iowa.

“It’s probably the first time in a while a team challenged us, and we didn’t respond,” said Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, whose team’s start matched the best ever in the Big East.

The main challenge came from Georgetown’s sophomore point guard, Allen Iverson, who led the Hoyas offensively and defensively with a game-high 26 points, six assists and eight steals.

“The little guy is something special,” Georgetown coach John Thompson said admiringly. “When you put judgment in that body, it’s unbelievable.”

Iverson was the free safety in Georgetown’s full-court pressure, but the defensive intensity was a team effort.

Jerome Williams had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Jerry Nichols and Boubacar Aw each added 11 points and helped frustrate the Huskies defensively.

Thompson said his players approached him at practice and said they only played intense defense when they got into trouble. They wanted to play that way the entire game.

“I said I’m all for it,” Thompson said. “I don’t know anything about offense anyway. We put more pressure on them and it worked.”

It worked to the tune of 20 turnovers, 12 in the first half when Georgetown took a 43-31 lead.

Connecticut point guard Doron Sheffer, who played 37 minutes and led the Huskies with 23 points, said the pressure was to be expected.

“I’ve been here before when Georgetown played as hard as they did today and we beat them,” Sheffer said. “They do it all the time. They’re an aggressive team. We have to come with our A game to beat them.”

One Huskie who definitely didn’t have his A game with him was Allen. He was 1-for-9 in the first half.

In the second half, Allen (5-for-18 overall) briefly caught fire, hitting three three-pointers as Connecticut pulled within 10 points. But Iverson continued to terrorize the Huskies defensively, Nichols hit two clutch three-pointers and Allen disappeared to the bench.

After the game, the Connecticut star was at a loss for words. His 13 points, 10 below his season average, tied his lowest output.

“They just stunned us,” he said. “They got down on us.”