Greene has 19; No. 10 Kansas tops Georgetown

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The play was a new one, called "Ear," and there's not much to hear about it because it broke down quickly.

So, instead, Kansas did what had been working already. Landen Lucas set a screen, and Brannen Greene hit the shot that made him 5 for 5 from 3-point range, a big down-the-stretch bucket Wednesday night in the No. 10 Jayhawks' 75-70 win over Georgetown.

"It wasn't even part of the play," Greene said. "And I found myself wide open, took my time and knocked it down. I loved that 3, honestly. It was a big 3 for me."

Greene scored 16 of his career-high 19 points in the second half, including a pair of free throws in the final minute as the Jayhawks (7-1) won their sixth in a row.

"According to him, if I let him play he could do it almost every night," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "But he seems like he's been focused of late."

Joshua Smith scored 20 points to lead the Hoyas (5-3), whose other losses came against No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 15 Butler.

Before the Jayhawks made their basketball statement with a win over a top team in the Big East, the Hoyas' players made a bold statement of their own. Georgetown's entire roster emerged for warmups wearing black, short-sleeve T-shirts with the words "I CAN'T BREATHE" in white.

The players kept the T-shirts on during the national anthem and pregame handshakes. They became the latest notable athletes to display the message on warmups or other equipment in recent days, echoing the last words spoken by Eric Garner as police were attempting to arrest him in New York in July. A grand jury decided last week not to indict the officers involved in his death, spurring protests across the country.

"We didn't wear the shirts to say that the cops were wrong or the system was wrong," Smith said. "We just wore the shirts just to show our condolences to the family because no matter how you look at it, we don't know who was right or wrong, but they still lost somebody. And they won't get that person back."

WINNING UGLY

The game didn't flow as much as it lurched along, with 33 combined turnovers and 58 free throws taken. Key players for both teams -- Greene and Georgetown's Mikael Hopkins -- had four fouls by midway through the second half. The leading scorers for both teams entering the game had off-nights, with Perry Ellis going 4 for 15 from the field and Georgetown's D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera 3 for 15.

BIG CALL

With 18 seconds to play, after Georgetown's Isaac Copeland missed a 3-point attempt that would have cut the lead to one, the ball went out of bounds -- and none of the three officials ruled whose possession it was. They still couldn't tell after looking at the replay, so they called it a jump ball, a crucial decision because it gave Kansas the ball on the alternating possession rule.

TIP-INS

Kansas: Self said it was like "a lunar eclipse" watching his players guard the football-lineman-sized Smith, who weighs some 320 pounds. "You'd never see `em if Josh was standing between them." ... Junior forward Jamari Traylor was suspended for the game after he was arrested over the weekend for interfering with a police officer near the Jayhawks' campus. He is due in court Dec. 23. ... This was Kansas' fifth game away from home this season, but the first one not to be played at a neutral site.

Georgetown: G Jabril Trawick banged his knee in a collision with Greene in the final minutes. Coach John Thompson III said it was a bone bruise just below the knee. "It's serious, though," the coach said. "He's hurting right now." ... The game completed a home-and-home series; Kansas thumped Georgetown 86-64 at Lawrence last season.

UP NEXT

Kansas plays Utah at Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday.

Georgetown hosts Radford on Saturday.