NEW YORK (AP) -Roy Hibbert went from scoring a season low to a season high, and has ninth-ranked Georgetown playing for another Big East tournament championship.
The 7-foot-2 center had 25 points and 13 rebounds, and Georgetown withstood West Virginia’s only big run midway through the second half to beat the Mountaineers 72-55 in the semifinals Friday night.
Georgetown (27-4) led 51-47 with just over 11 minutes left, but the Mountaineers didn’t get another basket until Joe Alexander scored with 3:13 to go. By then, Hibbert and the Hoyas had a 20-point lead and were thinking about a date with either seventh-seeded Pittsburgh or No. 6 seed Marquette in Saturday night’s title game.
Georgetown went to the perimeter in its quarterfinal victory over Villanova, matching a tournament record with 17 3-pointers. Hibbert had perhaps the worst game of his career in that one, going scoreless and managing just four rebounds before fouling out.
A different day, a much different stat line.
After 7-footer Jamie Smalligan picked up two early fouls, the defensive assignment of the all-Big East center fell to Alexander, who was giving up six inches in the post and had a tough time stopping the big man’s array of spin moves, follows and rim-rattling dunks.
Hibbert scored 11 points in the 7 minutes Smalligan was on the bench in the first half, including just his third career 3-pointer from the top of the key that had West Virginia coach Bob Huggins throwing his hands up in exasperation.
By the time Smalligan checked back in, Georgetown was on its way to building a 33-21 halftime lead that it pushed to 15 points on Jonathan Wallace’s 3 early in the second half.
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