Monroe’s 24 Pts, 15 Rebs Lead Hoyas Past Butler, 72-65
On Tuesday night, Greg Monroe announced to the world that he’s finally become a man.
Monroe’s career-high 24 points and 15 rebounds paced his No. 14 Georgetown Hoyas past No. 20 Butler in Tuesday’s opening game of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, giving the Hoyas their first win over a ranked team in nearly a year.
The Hoyas beat Butler 72-65 by virtue of their size – the Hoyas outrebounded Butler 43-30, outscored them 30-16 in the paint, and both of Butler’s front court starters had racked up three fouls a piece by halftime.
Monroe was the focal point of the Hoyas all night, as he used his considerable talents to confound Butler’s defense. By the second half, Butler was trapping two men on Monroe most of the time – considering how penchant of a passer he is, Butler made a huge mistake. In fact, Monroe took advantage of his teammates’ open looks, as he often dished to G/F Austin Freeman, who sank 4-of-5 three-pointers on an 18-point night of his own.
“I was just taking the first open shot I had and wasn’t forcing them,” Freeman said. “Greg gets everybody else open because they have to pay attention to him.”
Monroe’s coach certainly noticed his impact.
“You look at the stat sheet and obviously you see the numbers Greg put up,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “But I thought that was a total team effort. It’s easy to talk about what Greg and Austin did, but our other guys were huge.”
