Duke gets shot down

WASHINGTON

Put the commander in chief on the front row, and Georgetown beats Duke with its best shooting game in 30 years.

With President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden munching popcorn in some of the best seats in the house, the No. 7 Hoyas put on a couldn't-miss performance against No. 8 Duke, shooting 71.7 percent in yesterday's 89-77 win.

"The crowd was pumped up, Obama was there, so it was exciting," Georgetown guard Chris Wright said. "I think we all came out with a little bit more energy than usual. We were all over the place, defensively and offensively."

It couldn't have been a much bigger day for Georgetown: the president attending his first Hoyas game, the first sellout of the season in the 20,000-seat Verizon Center, a crowd mostly sporting "We Are Georgetown" T-shirts in a school-sponsored "gray out," the 200th win for Coach John Thompson III, the launch of an initiative for Darfur schools, and the much-detested empire from the ACC in the building.

"It was good, everything about it -- from who was there, to how we played against a terrific team, against a well-coached team, against a team that's one of the best teams in the country," said Thompson, who has a 200-97 record in six seasons with Georgetown and four at Princeton, "So the stars were aligned properly."

Wright seemed pumped for it all, scoring 21 points on 8-for-9 shooting and making two defensive plays that helped ignite an 18-3 run that gave the Hoyas the lead for good in the first half. Greg Monroe also finished with 21 points, and Austin Freeman added 20 for Georgetown (16-4), which shot 77 percent in the first half.

The 71.7 shooting percentage for the game tied the third highest mark in school history and was the best since the Hoyas shot 71.9 against St. John's in 1980. Georgetown nearly had the best shooting game ever against Duke, just shy of a 73.3 percent game by UCLA in 1965.

"We could never match their emotion," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "The place was electric. Their team was electric, and they played that way for 40 minutes."

Nolan Smith scored 19 points, Kyle Singler had 18 before fouling out with 2:10 to play, and Jon Scheyer added 17 for the Blue Devils (17-4), who shot only 37 percent.

Duke committed 15 turnovers -- actually one fewer than Georgetown -- but five of them came in a two-minute, first-half meltdown while the Hoyas were pulling ahead to stay.

First, Wright blocked Smith from behind on an outside jump shot, then seconds later stole the ball from Smith under the basket. Then came turnovers by Miles Plumlee, Smith and two by Scheyer, including a charging call.

DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Smith 36 6-16 5-8 4-4 1 2 19

Singler 38 4-14 7-7 2-6 4 5 18

MiPlmlee 21 2-5 2-2 1-2 0 4 6

Scheyer 38 5-13 4-4 2-4 5 3 17

Thomas 32 3-6 2-3 3-5 1 4 8

MaPlmlee 13 2-3 0-0 0-3 0 4 4

Dawkins 13 1-4 2-2 0-1 0 2 5

Kelly 7 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 3 0

Zoubek 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0

Totals 200 23-62 22-26 17-32 11 29 77

Percentages: FG .371, FT .846; 3-Point Goals: 9-29, .310 (Scheyer 3-8, Singler 3-9, Smith 2-7, Dawkins 1-4, Kelly 0-1); Team Rebounds: 6; Blocked Shots: 3 (Mi.Plumlee 2, Ma.Plumlee); Turnovers: 15 (Scheyer 3, Singler 2, Mi.Plumlee 2, Thomas 2, Ma.Plumlee, Kelly, Dawkins, Zoubek, Smith); Steals: 11 (Scheyer 5, Singler 2, Ma.Plumlee 2, Mi.Plumlee, Smith);

G'TOWN Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Wright 40 8-9 4-5 0-4 2 3 21

Monroe 40 7-11 7-10 0-5 5 3 21

Freeman 38 8-11 2-2 0-3 5 3 20

Clark 28 4-5 0-0 0-0 3 4 9

Vaughn 20 4-4 0-2 1-3 2 3 8

Thmpsn 13 2-3 0-0 0-2 0 3 6

Sanford 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Benimon 20 0-3 4-4 0-2 3 4 4

Totals 200 33-46 17-23 2-22 20 23 89

Percentages: FG .717, FT .739; 3-Point Goals: 6-13, .462 (Thompson 2-3, Freeman 2-3, Wright 1-2, Clark 1-2, Benimon 0-1, Monroe 0-2); Team Rebounds: 3; Blocked Shots: 9 (Vaughn 3, Wright 2, Thompson, Monroe, Benimon, Freeman); Turnovers: 16 (Benimon 3, Freeman 3, Wright 3, Vaughn 3, Monroe, Thompson, Clark); Steals: 9 (Wright 3, Monroe 2, Thompson 2, Benimon, Freeman).