Photo by michael starghill.

It was merely three days ago that the #8 Georgetown Hoyas (17-5, 7-4 Big East), who were coming off a nationally-televised and Presidentially-attended throttling of Duke, lost to an average South Florida team — even without their best player, Gus Gilchrist, who had an ankle injury — on a chilly Wednesday evening at the Verizon Center.

Questions were raised, wondering if this team was a legitimate threat in the Big East, or if the big Duke win was merely a flash in the pan. Those doubts were quickly eliminated yesterday, as the Hoyas played even better than they did against Duke in a 103-90 win over #2 Villanova (20-2, 9-1 Big East), pushing their record against ranked teams this season to 7-2.

The snowy conditions outside provided a back story all their own. At tip-off, the student section was amazingly filled to capacity, as the Hoya Saxa contingent trekked their way through inches of snow from Georgetown to the Phone Booth and really brought the noise as seats gradually filled up inside.

As for the game they were there to witness, Villanova returned to the Verizon Center for the second time this season after defeating Maryland in the BB&T Classic in December. That day, the Wildcats were shooting lights out from beyond the arc and made 16 three-pointers. This time, however, Nova committed nearly twice as many turnovers as they made threes, and struggled to find a hot hand all afternoon. Guards Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher provided almost half of the team’s scoring output with 24 points apiece, but the other three starters combined for 19 points due to constant foul trouble.