MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Da'Sean Butler was one of three seniors honored Monday by West Virginia on the court at WVU Coliseum before the Mountaineers game against No. 19 Georgetown and when asked to reflect on his career he said quite simply, "It exceeded all of my expectations."

It was fitting that on this night, in his final career home game, Butler had a huge game and led the No. 10 Mountaineers to an 81-68 pounding of the Hoyas.

Butler, who is the school's third-leading scorer behind Jerry West and Rod Hundley, scored 22 points, grabbed 6 rebounds had 6 assists and scored a number of key baskets to stop Hoyas runs.

"When I came here I figured I could be a good player, but I never imagined this," Butler said after the game. "I never thought I'd be as good as I am. I never thought I'd work as hard as I have. I never thought I'd be able to play for a coach like this, on a team this good, a team that has a chance to play for the national championship.

"I'm sort of overwhelmed by it all right now, to be honest."

Though it was clear that most of the 13,211 in attendance were sad to see Butler go and they showed their appreciation for him with loud ovations -- before the game when he was being honored and late in the game when he was taken out for the last time -- one guy who isn't sad to see him go is Georgetown coach John Thompson III.

Butler, who is 6 feet 7 and has guard and big-man skills, is one of the most feared players in the league because he is a matchup nightmare.

"I'm glad he's graduating," Thompson said, before cracking a big smile. "Da'Sean can do a lot of different things on the basketball court, but speaking purely as an outsider, he also appears to be a terrific leader on that team.

"I mean, his talent and skill level are special. He started the year playing point guard, he plays forward, he can play big, he can play the perimeter -- he can do so many things on the court, but, and like I said, I'm an outsider and I might be completely off, he appears to be a terrific leader, too."

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was told of Thompson's comments and said: "He is absolutely right about Da'Sean. He is not only one of the best players to ever play here, he is one of the best people to play here. He is just a special guy."

Although the night belonged to Butler, along with Wellington Smith and walk-on Cam Payne, the victory was a total team effort in many ways, particularly on defense as the Mountaineers forced 20 Georgetown turnovers and turned them into 24 points.

This was especially true in the first half, when the Hoyas had 12 turnovers as the Mountaineers were able to build a 43-26 halftime lead. West Virginia then opened the second half on a 10-0 run to break the game open.

Georgetown (19-9, 9-8 Big East) did make one run at West Virginia -- the Hoyas got to within 62-53 -- but Butler slammed the door with four consecutive points.

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

Georgetown played without leading scorer Austin Freeman (illness) but got 22 points and nine rebounds from Greg Monroe and 21 points from Chris Wright. Also, Devin Ebanks scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Mountaineers.

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