Jay Heath scored 25 points and Primo Spears added 20 as Georgetown overwhelmed UMBC with defense at the start of the second half in a 79-70 victory on Saturday in Washington, D.C.
Heath made 5 of 6 shots from beyond the arc and Spears connected on 3 of 4 tries from long distance as the Hoyas (4-3) made 50 percent (11 of 22) of their 3-point attempts. Spears added six assists and six rebounds.
Qudus Wahab added 10 points and eight rebounds for Georgetown.
The Hoyas trailed by as many as eight points before the break but took control with a 16-0 run to open the second half.
Using their superior length and quickness in an aggressive man-to-man scheme, the Hoyas forced 13 consecutive misses by the Retrievers to begin the half and grab a 58-42 lead.
UMBC (3-4) was paced by Matteo Picarelli who came off the bench to hit five 3-pointers on his way to 19 points. Colton Lawrence scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half to go along with his eight rebounds.
In the closing minutes, the Retrievers went on a late 14-2 run fueled by a trio of 3-pointers from Picarelli to make it interesting. UMBC sliced the deficit to 73-68, but in the final 27 seconds, Wayne Bristol had a breakaway slam and made two free throws to sew it up.
UMBC opened with the game’s first seven points and held the lead for most of the first half.
When Bryson Mozone made a 3-pointer with 5:03 left in the half, the Hoyas had their first lead of the game, 35-34.
After making five of their first eight 3-point attempts, the Retrievers missed their next eight attempts in the half but still earned a 42-42 tie at the break.
Georgetown held UMBC scoreless for the first 7:20 of the second half and without a field goal for the first 8:21 of the period. The Retrievers made just 24.2 percent of their shots in the second half and finished at 33.8 percent for the game.
Spears and Wahab supplied six points each during the 16-0 run to open the half.
–Field Level Media