BOX SCORE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Roy Hibbert scored 20 points to lead No. 14-rated Georgetown to a 71-53 victory over No. 22 West Virginia Monday night at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

	West Virginia's Joe Alexander (11) battles for position for a rebound against Georgetown's Jonathan Wallace (2) during first half NCAA men's basketball action at the Verizon Center in Washington, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. AP photo/Gerald Herbert

“(Hibbert) just gets points that only he can get,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “He’s a very, very talented player not only in college, but I think we’ll be seeing him play after college.”

The Hoyas look like a team hitting their stride, winning eight Big East games in a row for the first time since 1989. Georgetown has had double-digit winning margins in seven of its last eight games, including back-to-back 18-point victories at home against No. 12 Marquette and tonight against West Virginia.

“They’re so darn good and we obviously had a sub-par game tonight but they made us do that,” said Beilein. “It’s not about their plays; they’ve got plays and they’ve got players.”

Georgetown (19-5, 9-2) was 15 of 19 shooting in the first half and built a 37-20 halftime lead. The lead swelled to as big as 30 points with 5:59 remaining.

For the game, the Hoyas shot 58 percent (26 of 35) including 5 of 8 from 3-point distance. Hibbert was 4 of 5 from the field and was 12 of 13 from the free throw line.

Jeff Green scored 15 and Jonathan Wallace added 14 for the Hoyas. Georgetown had a 35-19 advantage on the backboards.

“Early in the year they lost to Duke and lost a couple of games but now, you just look at their numbers in conference play and they’re better in conference play than they were non (conference),” Beilein said.

Darris Nichols and Joe Alexander added 10 points each for the Mountaineers, now 19-6, 7-5. West Virginia couldn’t find its 3-point shooting touch going 9 of 26 -- partly because of Georgetown’s smothering half court defense, and partly due to the fact that it has played three games against Top 15 teams in six days and six games total in the last two weeks.

“I’m not that upset because we got beat by a team that is that good on the road and you don’t give up, you’ve got to make a positive out of it,” Beilein said.

The Mountaineers will have five days off before facing Seton Hall Saturday at the WVU Coliseum.

“We’ll learn a lot from that one and I’m glad we got Joe Alexander to make a couple of 3s at the end,” Beilein said.

Georgetown now pulls to within a game of Pittsburgh for the top spot in the Big East standings. Pitt lost 66-53 at home to Louisville earlier tonight.

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