INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera scored a team-high 16 points and came up with a key steal late in the game to lift visiting Georgetown past #21 Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Tuesday (March 3).  The setback dropped the Bulldogs to 21-9 on the year and into a tie with Georgetown for second place in the BIG EAST with an 11-6 mark.

Smith-Rivera, playing in his hometown, scored 11 of his points in the second half.  His last two followed his biggest play of the game.  With Georgetown hanging on to a 56-54 lead in the final ten seconds, Hoyas' center Josh Smith missed a free throw and Butler's Kameron Woods pulled down the rebound.

But Smith-Rivera slipped in behind Woods and stole the ball and was immediately fouled.  He made both free throws with six seconds left to seal the win.  Georgetown added two more free throws three seconds later.

The late heroics of Smith-Rivera spoiled the strong "Senior Night" performance of Butler seniors Alex Barlow and Woods.  Barlow hit three of five shots from beyond the three-point arc and finished with 13 points.  Woods turned in his best performance of the season with a team-high 15 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.

"Give Georgetown a lot of credit.  I thought they were really active, they were really physical and they made it very difficult for us to score," said Butler Head Coach Chris Holtmann.

The Hoyas (19-9, 11-6 BIG EAST) limited Butler to 35% shooting for the game, and the Bulldogs were plagued by poor shooting from the foul line.  Butler hit a season-low 45.5% (10-22) from the charity stripe, including just four of 13 (30.8%) in the first half.  Georgetown had ten blocked shots in the game, and Butler committed 15 turnovers.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a solid start and built a 20-15 advantage with just under seven minutes remaining in the opening period.  But Georgetown unleashed a 12-0 run to grab a seven-point lead and then took a six-point margin, 30-24, to the locker room at halftime.

The Hoyas led by as many as ten points early in the second half, before Butler charged back and eventually took a 37-36 lead on a three-point field goal by Kellen Dunham.  From that point, the two teams were never separated by more than five points until the final score.

Butler, led by Woods, finished with a commanding, 39-20, rebounding advantage in the game.  The Bulldogs had 17 offensive rebounds, including seven by Woods, and out-scored Georgetown, 15-2, on second chance points.  Woods nearly out-rebounded Georgetown by himself.

"A lot of it's mind-set," pointed out Holtmann of Woods' rebounding performance.  "He has God-given talent with his length and pursuit of the ball, but I just think a lot of it's mind-set.  The area that he's really improved in this year is his offensive rebounding percentrage.  He's really made strides there getting to the glass on the offensive end."

Woods boosted his career rebounding total to 906, becoming jus the third player in Butler basketball history to record 900 career rebounds.  He stands third on Butler's all-time rebounding list.

Dunham, Butler's leading scorer on the season and the third-leading scorer in the BIG EAST, finished with eight points.  He scored all eight points in two minutes in the second half.  Roosevelt Jones, the Bulldogs' second-leading scorer, was held to seven points.



The Bulldogs will close out the regular season at Providence on Saturday, March 7.  The game at Dunkin' Donuts Center will start at noon (ET) and be televised on FOX Sports 1.