Washington, DC (Sports Network) - Greg Monroe had a brilliant all-around game with 13 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, five steals and two blocked shots, as ninth-ranked Georgetown stopped a two-game slide with an 82-75 victory over Providence at the Verizon Center.
Austin Freeman scored 18 points and Chris Wright added 16 in the balanced attack for Georgetown (11-3, 2-2 Big East), which was coming off losses to Notre Dame and Pittsburgh after a conference-opening win at Connecticut.
The difficult Big East schedule continues for the Hoyas on Wednesday when Syracuse visits the nation's capital.
Providence (11-5, 3-1) was supposed to be a break for Georgetown, but the Friars were no pushovers and entered the game with a four-game winning streak that included wins in their first three Big East games. Providence was trying to start a conference season with four wins for the first time in school history.
Marshon Brooks led the Friars with 18 points and Weyinmi Efejuku added 13 in defeat.
Providence led by as many as nine in the first half and rallied from a 16- point deficit in the second half to make things interesting.
"This is the Big East," said Georgetown head coach John Thompson III. "We didn't come out as focused as we should have. That's a veteran team, they play like a veteran team. They don't make mistakes. They put a group out on the floor that doesn't get rattled. They know what they're looking for, having all those upperclassmen makes a big difference and they came out like an upper- class team. Once we settled into the game we were fine."
An 11-2 run gave the Friars a 21-12 lead midway through the opening 20 minutes and it was still an eight-point cushion after two free throws by Efejuku with three minutes to play before the intermission. The Hoyas, though, ran off eight of the last 11 points and trailed just 36-33 at the break.
Monroe scored just two points before helping to take control in the second half.
"Once we started getting [Monroe] the ball, we started getting really easy shots," Thompson noted.
Brian McKenzie's three-pointer gave Providence a 44-40 lead just over 3 1/2 minutes to the second half, but Georgetown clamped down on defense for the next six minutes.
The Hoyas scored the next 15 points, getting five from Monroe, and led 55-44 before Providence's next basket - a dunk by Randall Hanke with 10 minutes remaining.
"It was an interesting stretch," stated Providence head coach Keno Davis. "Sometimes when teams go on the road and there is physical play there's kind of a gut-check time and we didn't react very well to those minutes and we got frustrated because they made some good shots during that stretch."
A bucket by Freeman with just under eight minutes left gave Georgetown its largest lead at 66-50, but Brooks answered with a three-pointer and the Friars stormed back.
Another Brooks three with just over two minutes to play pulled Providence within 76-70 and a layup by Geoff McDermott with 1:18 remaining made it a three-point game.
Wright turned it over on Georgetown's next possession and the Friars were unable to convert when Efejuku missed a contested layup. Monroe followed with a dunk and Sapp hit a free throw to give Georgetown some breathing room, as Providence continually misfired from long range in the final minute.
Game Notes
Monroe finished 5-of-7 from the field, as Georgetown shot 54.7 percent overall..DaJuan Summers scored 12 points and Jason Clark added 10, as the Hoyas had five players reach double figures..Georgetown held a 41-29 edge on the boards..Hanke had 10 points for the Friars and McKenzie finished with nine on a trio of three-pointers..The Friars shot 42.2 percent overall and made 10-of-23 from beyond the arc..Sharaud Curry had nine assists and six points in defeat.