November 12, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Savannah State men's basketball team opened their 2011-12 season with a 83-54 road loss to Georgetown in a game played at the Verizon Center before a crowd of 9,876.

The Hoyas jumped out to a 5-2 lead but a 3-pointer by Arnold Louis tied the game at five with 16:49 on the clock.

Georgetown grabbed a eight point lead but back-to-back 3-pointers by Deric Rudolph closed the Tigers within 16-14 with 8:31 left.

The Hoyas led by as many as 11 in the opening half but Rudolph canned another 3-pointer with three seconds left to send SSU into the locker-room trailing 32-24.

Georgetown used its size advantage to out-scored SSU 22-4 in the paint in the first half and scored 11 points off seven SSU turnovers.

Savannah State scored the first five points of the second period as Rudolph made a 3-pointer and Joshua Montgomery made a layup to make the score 32-29 with 19:40 on the clock.

The Hoyas answered with 12 unanswered points for a 44-29 edge with 16:02 remaining.

With 10:33 left, Georgetown's advantage grew to 21 points but Savannah State strung together a 7-0 run to cut their deficit to 54-40 with 8:31 left.

That would be as close as the Tigers would get.

Georgetown led by 22 with just under four minutes left and finished the final three minutes with a 11-2 run.

Rudolph, who finished with four 3-pointers, came off the bench to lead SSU (0-1) with 12 points. Rashad Hassan added 11 points in a reserve role. Jyles Smith had seven rebounds and Preston Blackmon dished out five assists.

Henry Sims paced GU (1-0) with 19 points.

The Hoyas shot 66.7 percent from the floor and made 53.3 percent of their 3-point attempts.