MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- No. 10 West Virginia got an important win tonight over No. 19 Georgetown, 81-68, at WVU Coliseum in the Mountaineers final home game of the season.

The victory means the Mountaineers (23-6, 12-5 in the Big East) can finish no lower than fourth place in the Big East and thus have clinched a double-bye in the Big East Tournament.

They will finish their season Saturday afternoon at second-place Villanova (23-5, 12-4) and, with a win in that game, could actually finish as high as second in the conference behind Syracuse.

The Orange (27-2, 14-2) have already clinched first place in the conference.

Regardless of where the Mountaineers finish in the regular season race, if they play like they did against the Hoyas, they will have a good shot to win the Big East Tournament.

That's because West Virginia blew out the Hoyas (19-9, 9-8)and played some of their best basketball, particularly on offense, in stretches throughout the game.

West Virginia jumped to a big lead early in the game, led by as many as 20 points -- 41-21 -- in the first half and held a 43-26 lead at halftime.

The Mountaineers then opened the second half on a 10-0 run to push their lead to 27 points -- 53-26 -- and for the most part was able to cruise to the end.

West Virginia did seem to fall asleep midway through the second half and Georgetown made a furious rally to get to within 62-53 but the Mountaineers forced two consecutive turnovers and Da'Sean Butler scored four points in a row to help his team regain control of the game.

As is customary for the final regular season home game of the season, it was "Senior Night" and the Mountaineers honored three seniors who played their final career home game -- Butler, Wellington Smith and Cam Payne.

Georgetown played without leading scorer Austin Freeman (illness) but got 22 points from Greg Monroe and 21 points from Chris Wright. Butler led the Mountaineers 22 points, six rebounds and six assists while Devin Ebanks added 15 points and five rebounds.

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