No. 9 Huskies Defeat Georgetown, 66-59

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 8, 2005)— Sophomore forward Charlie Villanueva had 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team to a 66-59 BIG EAST Conference win over the Georgetown University at MCI Center. With the win, UConn improves to 9-2 overall, 1-1 in the league. The Hoyas fall to 9-4 overall, and also sit at 1-1 in conference play.

Junior forward Denham Brown broke out of a scoring slump to add 19 points in the victorious effort, including a big three-pointer with just under three minutes to play that put the Huskies back up by 12 points, 59-47.

Georgetown came out in the second half like a different team, hitting the Huskies with a 15-2 run to cut the UConn lead to 45-37 with just under 13 minutes to play.

The Huskies jumped out to a 39-19 halftime lead, dominating the Hoyas on the glass by a count of 32-15. The Hoyas shot an abysmal 25 percent (7-of-28) in the first half, with UConn just a shade under 40 percent at 39.4 (13-of-33). The Huskies used their domination of the glass to amass a 12-0 advantage on second chance points in the first half. Villanueva had 12 points and eight boards at the break, while Bowman had eight to lead the Hoyas.

The Huskies got off to a great start, leading by a score of 15-4 less than eight minutes into the contest. The Hoyas were cold from the outset, missing nine of their first ten shots. The Hoyas were as close as ten points, at 27-17, with four minutes to go in the half, but UConn outscored the Hoyas 12-2 in the final four minutes of the half to get the lead up to 20 points.

UConn returns to action on Monday, Jan. 10 at 9:00 p.m. ET at the University of Oklahoma. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.