WASHINGTON -- Jeff Green had 17 points and seven rebounds to help No. 8 Georgetown pull away from Hartford for a tougher-than-expected 69-59 victory Saturday in the season opener for both teams.
Roy Hibbert, like Green a part of the junior class that arrived at Georgetown with coach John Thompson III, added 16 points. Hibbert's three-point play with 4:59 left finally gave the Hoyas some separation at 59-54.
Until then, Georgetown's problems on offense (42 percent from the field) and Hartford's reliance on 3-pointers kept things close. The Hawks were within 54-53 with under seven minutes left before Georgetown began to take control.
Joe Zeginski and Alex Zimnickas led Hartford with 14 points apiece.
It wasn't supposed to so close. As one courtside Hoyas fan yelled, "This is Hartford, guys!"
Hartford was 13-15 last season, returned only five players and was picked to finish last in the America East. Dan Leibovitz was in his first game as a head coach after 10 seasons as an assistant to Temple's John Chaney.
Since moving up to Division I in 1984-85, Hartford has played 17 season openers on the road -- and won twice.
Georgetown, meanwhile, returned three starters -- including two, Green and Hibbert, nominated for the Wooden Award -- and boasted its highest ranking in the Associated Press preseason poll since 1995. The Hoyas reached the NCAA Tournament's round of 16 last season before losing to eventual champion Florida.
The Hoyas are hoping for a special season, and not merely because the school is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the start of its men's basketball program. A pregame video montage showed highlights from the past, including when Thompson's father coached the Hoyas to the 1984 national title with help from center Patrick Ewing.
Ewing's son, Patrick Jr., played his first game in a Hoyas uniform Saturday after sitting out a season when he transferred from Indiana. Wearing his dad's No. 33, Ewing entered with 7:46 left in the first half, played eight minutes and didn't attempt a shot.
Hartford kept things tight through most of the first half and took an 18-16 lead 10½ minutes into the game on Jaret Von Rosenberg's driving bank shot.
From there, though, Georgetown held Hartford scoreless for more than four minutes during a 9-0 run that began with Tyler Crawford's three-point play and was capped by Green's two free throws.
But that began a pattern. Georgetown would go on a mini-run to get some breathing room, and then the host would go silent on offense and Hartford would get close again.
The Hoyas struggled on offense, throwing the ball away or missing inside shots, and they failed to score over the final 2:13 of the first half -- which ended with the hosts ahead 31-27 -- and first two minutes of the second.
Georgetown led 48-46 when Green took over for a bit. He scored on a drive, whipped a pass to Marc Egerson for a basket, forced a turnover at the other end, then made two foul shots to up the advantage to 54-48, before Hartford made one last run.
