Whittington leads Georgetown

GEORGETOWN forward Greg Whittington stole the ball on the perimeter and dribbled up court, slowing slightly once he reached the paint to size up a defender, who was closing on him.

Whittington dunked, anyway.

There was little Longwood could do as No. 15 Georgetown cruised to an 89-53 victory Monday night.

Otto Porter scored a career-high 22 points, added seven assists and four steals and returned after taking an apparent hit to the head during the second half.

The point total for Georgetown (8-1) against Longwood (2-8) was much bigger than the Hoyas managed in two of their last three wins. They beat Tennessee 37-36 and Towson 46-40 around a 64-41 win over Texas.

"When you look at that last game, the ball didn't go in, and so you have to fix that," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "But most of the looks we got were wide open shots.

"It wasn't a question of movement within the offense. Our guys just put the ball in the basket a little bit today."

Porter went to the bench with 13:46 left, holding his hand to his face. He took a hit to the head during the Hoyas' season-opening win over Duquesne and missed the next game with "symptoms indicative of a mild concussion." But this time, Porter didn't leave the court area, and fans gave him a noticeable ovation when he returned a few minutes later.

After the game, he laughed off the injury.

"I just caught an elbow from my teammate going for the rebound," Porter said.

Before Porter left the game, Georgetown had already built a sizable lead.

Markel Starks was 4-for-5 from three-point range and had 17 points for the Hoyas while Whittington had eight points.

The Hoyas used a 17-5 run over the first 4 minutes of the second half to pull away, forcing several turnovers in the process. Their 30 turnovers forced were the most since Elon turned the ball over 32 times on Dec. 13, 2003. Seven Longwood players had multiple turnovers.

"It's a team effort in the wrong direction," Longwood coach Mike Gillian said.

Georgetown has won five straight games and appears likely to stretch that streak to seven before Big East play begins. They Hoyas will host Western Carolina and American before playing at Marquette on Jan. 5.

Indiana is No. 1 for a sixth straight week in the Associated Press college basketball poll.

The Hoosiers are again followed in the Top 25 by Duke, Michigan and Syracuse. The only changes in Monday's poll is the order, not who's ranked.

The Hoosiers (9-0) received 44 first-place votes from the 64-member national media panel. Duke (9-0) again drew the other No. 1 votes.

Florida and Louisville switched places at fifth and sixth. They were followed by Ohio State, Arizona, Kansas and Illinois. The Illini (10-0) beat fellow unbeaten Gonzaga on Saturday, moving into the top 10 for the first time since the next-to-last poll of 2005-06. Gonzaga dropped to 14th.

The Big Ten has the most ranked teams with six. The Big East has five and the Atlantic Coast Conference and Mountain West three each.