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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Kevin Braswell isn't the same
player he was last year and Georgetown certainly isn't the same
team it was last season.
|  | | The Pirates' Darius Lane (30) battles for a loose ball with Mike Sweetney, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Hoyas. |
Braswell, who has transformed himself from a scorer to a point guard,
had 26 points and five assists Monday night to lead Georgetown (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) to a 99-91 victory over Seton Hall (No. 19, No. 18).
The win kept the Hoyas (16-0, 4-0 Big East) one of two unbeaten
Division I teams and brought them within three of last season's
victory total.
The Hoyas and top-ranked Stanford (15-0) are the only teams not
to have lost this season. The latest win extends Georgetown's
second-best start to a season, topped only by their 18-0 start in
1984-85.
"Nobody has to rank us nowhere," Braswell said. "We don't
have to be in the Top 10 or anything. That fires us up. We want to
go out and prove people wrong."
Braswell, who entered the game averaging 9.4 points, came up
with his season-high point total, and none was bigger than the
3-pointer he made with 8:50 left after Seton Hall (11-5, 2-3) had come within one point after trailing by as many as 12 in the second
half.
Braswell finished 4-for-8 from 3-point range and the Hoyas, who
beat Seton Hall 78-66 on Jan. 6, were 8-for-17 from beyond the arc.
"He made a great shot," Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker said.
"Sometimes you think about what we did wrong, but you can also
think about what he did right. He played a heck of a game and made
3s early. He buried a big 3 and a deep 3. They deserved it."
After Braswell's 3 gave Georgetown the four-point lead,
Nathaniel Burton made two free throws for the Hoyas. Andre
Barrett's driving jumper with 8:09 left brought the Pirates within
80-76, but that was their last field goal for 6:21 as the Hoyas'
came up with some impressive defense down the stretch, enabling
them to stretch the lead to as much as 93-80 with 2:52 to play.
"I thought last year a team would make a run at us,
particularly on the road, and we would not be able to prevent them
from closing the game on us," Georgetown coach Craig Esherick
said. "This year we have maintained our confidence on offense,
gotten some stops and got the margin back again."
Freshman forward Mike Sweetney had 14 points and 14 rebounds for
Georgetown, while Lee Scruggs added 13 points, nine on 3-pointers.
Barrett and fellow freshman Eddie Griffin each had 19 points for
Seton Hall, which fell to 1-4 against ranked teams this season and
has lost three of its last four overall. Darius Lane added 15
points, but struggled again from the field, going 4-for-12. He was
a career-worst 1-for-15 in the first meeting.
Griffin, who had nine rebounds and failed to get a double-double
for just the second time this season, fell hard to the floor in the
first half and was limping throughout the game. He was also slowed
by second-half foul trouble.
"To me he didn't seem to be the same player. He went down
hard," Amaker said of Griffin. "He was able to play the rest of
the game, but with foul trouble and his hip, he didn't have as much
mobility. He wasn't his usual self."
Griffin seemed to be more hurt by Braswell's big 3-pointer.
"We had the crowd going, the bench was going, everyone was
going," he said. "As soon as he hit that 3 we died, man. We had
worked so hard to come back to within one and he hit that 3 and it
took the life out of us. We just have to regroup and play harder to
win games."
Braswell scored half the points in Georgetown's 16-0 run that
gave the Hoyas a 47-33 lead with 5:08 left in the first half. He
had two 3s in the run, capped with a long layup after a Seton Hall
turnover.
It was the most points allowed by Seton Hall since a 105-96 loss
to Ohio State in December 1995 and the most the Pirates have ever
allowed in Continental Airlines Arena, where it started playing in
1981.
"Braswell held everything together for them and their frontline
wore us down and that's what you have to face when you face
Georgetown," Amaker said. "They deserve everything that's said
about them."
Esherick said the Hoyas' play on the road has been the biggest
surprise to him.
"At the beginning of the year I didn't think we'd be this good
on the road," he said. "I didn't think we had that much
experience coming back, but they've done a good job of playing well
on the road when teams make runs at us, and that's a tribute to
Kevin Braswell."
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Georgetown Clubhouse
Seton Hall Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 The Hoyas' Gerald Riley makes the steal and goes all the way for a jam.
avi: 752 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Samuel Dalembert knows what to do with the alley-oop from Darius Lane.
avi: 480 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Demetrius Hunter drives the lane for a Georgetown dunk.
avi: 706 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Ty Shine finds Andre Barrett, who finishes the Seton Hall break.
avi: 728 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Samuel Dalembert slams home an offensive rebound for the Pirates.
avi: 914 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Kevin Braswell spins in the lane for a Hoyas' bucket.
avi: 850 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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