It was the seventh-straight win, and the 14th in the last 16 games, for the Blue and Gray, who improve to 27-4 overall and advance to the Championship Game of the BIG EAST Tournament for the 12th time in program history.  Georgetown is now 14-0 in BIG EAST Tournament history when they are the No. 1 seed.

Hibbert sent a message from the opening basket, scoring on a put-back dunk to open the game and finished with 13 points in the first half as Georgetown opened a 33-21 lead at the break.

West Virginia, however, caught fire in second half, hitting five three-pointers in the opening 5:31 of the frame and pulling to within six points, 45-39 on a trey from Alex Ruoff.  After two more Hibbert baskets pushed the Georgetown lead to 49-40 with 13:15 left in the game, West Virginia went on a 7-2 run and pulled to within four points, 51-47, when Ruoff hit a pair of free throws after a technical foul was called on freshman guard Chris Wright ( Bowie , Md. /St. John’s Catholic [D.C.]).

That was as close as the Mountaineers would get.  The Hoyas used a decisive 16-0 run over a span of 7:07 and took a 67-47 lead on a drive from junior guard Jessie Sapp ( New York , N.Y./National Christian Academy [ Md. ]) with 3:38 to play.  Sapp started the run with a drive to the lane and scored six points during the run, while Hibbert scored four points and added an assist. 

It was during that time that the Georgetown defense – which has now held 22 opponents to 60 points or fewer this season – clamped down.  The Hoyas held West Virginia to only one made field goal for a stretch of 9:01 as a 49-45 game after a three-pointer from Ruoff turned into a 67-47 lead.  The Mountaineers’ next basket was a jumper from Joe Alexander with 3:14 to play.  Alexander, who scored 34 points against Connecticut in the quarterfinals, was held to 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting as he was stymied by the defensive efforts of sophomore forward DaJuan Summers (Baltimore, Md./McDonogh), senior Patrick Ewing, Jr. (Marietta, Ga./National Christian Academy [Md.]) and sophomore Jeremiah Rivers (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park). 

Hibbert’s dunk to open the scoring in the first half got things going for the Hoyas, as they took a 7-3 lead on a drive from Summers and a three-pointer from freshman guard Austin Freeman (Mitchellville, Md./DeMatha).  A three-pointer from Hibbert – the third of his career and first since beating Connecticut with one on January 12 at Verizon Center – was followed by a dunk from the 7-2 center and Georgetown led 12-8.  West Virginia pulled to within two points, 16-14, on a put back basket from John Flowers, but the Hoyas used an 8-0 spurt  - with Hibbert scoring six points and Sapp adding two – over 2:21 to take a 24-14 lead.

A three-pointer from Joe Mazzulla pulled West Virginia to within 24-17, but Georgetown out-scored the Mountaineers 9-4 over the final 4:21 of the half and took a 33-21 lead.

Hibbert connected on 12-of-17 shots for 25 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, handed out two assists and blocked two shots to lead the Hoyas, while Sapp added 13 points, seven rebounds and two assists.  Summers finished with nine points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, senior guard Jonathan Wallace (Harvest, Ala./Sparkman) added nine points, three rebounds and two assists and Freeman chipped in seven points, two boards and two assists.

The Hoyas held a 23-22 advantage on the boards and handed out 17 assists, with eight players handing out at least two apiece.  Georgetown shot 53.3 percent from the floor (32-of-60), hit 41.2 percent of its three-pointers (8-of-20) and 14.3 percent of its free throws (1-of-7).